NBA commissioner David Stern went on SportsCenter Tuesday evening to confirm the ultimatum the league's owners gave to the NBA Players Association earlier Tuesday, telling the players either to accept the 50/50 split of basketball related income (BRI) the league had offered by Wednesday or ultimately settle for a deal that was much, much worse.
"We think there's a great offer on table, and we told the players, 'It's getting late,'" Stern said. "The only rational thing is to make that deal because given what is going on in our business and our industry, it will get worse from there. We told the players ... an offer of 47 percent will become operative with a hard cap in effect [if they don't accept.]"
Stern also spoke out against the reported movement by some player representatives toward decertification, citing this summer's NFL lockout as precedent that such a move would not be allowed by the courts.
"I don't think it would affect it particularly much," Stern said. "The reality is that decertification route was tried by the NFL players and the court of appeals for 8th Circuit soundly rejected the attempt. I don't know what they're thinking."
The one thing Stern did say that might offer fans hope of seeing professional basketball this season was that he is not yet ready to call off the remainder of the season just yet.
"I don't think it would affect it particularly much," Stern said. "The reality is that decertification route was tried by the NFL players and the court of appeals for 8th Circuit soundly rejected the attempt. I don't know what they're thinking."
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