NEW YORK — NBA players are facing a Wednesday afternoon deadline to accept the league’s current proposal or face a harsher one that calls for rolling back their salaries, and commissioner David Stern said Monday “the only rational thing to do is for us to make that deal.”
“We think that there’s a great offer on the table and what we told the players is it’s getting late, the only rational thing to do is for us to make that deal because given what’s going on in our business and our industry, it’ll get worse from there,” Stern said during an interview on ESPN.
That proposal calls for players to receive anywhere between 49 and 51 percent of basketball-related income, though players argue it would be nearly impossible for them to get anywhere above 50.2.
Stern said the next one will call for a 53-47 split in the owners’ favor, along with essentially a hard salary cap.
Stern set the deadline early Sunday morning after owners and players met for more than eight hours with federal mediator George Cohen.
Owners have been insistent on not going beyond a 50-50 split of revenues, though some would prefer the league had already demanded the 53-47 split.
No bargaining session has been set before the deadline, though player representatives will be in New York today for a union planning meeting.
Players association president Derek Fisher said Sunday it was still too early to give members anything to vote on.
The Associated Press
