NBA Offseason Discussion Thread

[No More Sorrow]

Yeah i've kind of lost faith in a deal getting done and their being basketball this season. It sucks.

 

[No More Sorrow]

The NBA formally notified teams Tuesday that it has canceled games through Dec. 15, a source told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.

The news comes one day after the the players' union rejected the owners' latest offer and announced its intention to disband and file an antitrust lawsuit against the league.

Team union representatives voted unanimously Monday to file a "disclaimer of interest" that will dissolve the players' union.

Executive director Billy Hunter and union president Derek Fisher announced that with negotiations between the sides at a stalemate, they planned to file an antitrust lawsuit within 48 hours. The suit will seek a summary judgment that deems the NBA shutdown which began July 1 to be illegal.

Hunter then acknowledged in an interview with NBA TV on Monday that, even though the NBPA pushed for disclaiming its status as the players' collective bargaining representative over decertification to get into a courtroom faster, there is a "high probability" that the entire 2011-12 season will be lost because of the lengthy nature of court proceedings.

Said commissioner David Stern in a subsequent interview on ESPN: "The union decided in its infinite wisdom that the proposal would not be presented to membership [for a vote]." Referring to union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, Stern added ominously: "Obviously Mr. Kessler got his way and we are about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA."

"If I were a player," Stern continued, "I would be wondering what it is that Billy Hunter just did."

Tuesday, the 138th day of the lockout, was the day players were to have received their first paychecks of the 2011-12 season. According to CNBC, the average NBA player lost $220,000 as a result of the stalemate with the owners.

ESPN.com

 

[Jay]

HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO FEED THEIR FAMILEIS!?!?!?!?....oh wait.


Sucks for Basket ball fans.

 

[PHX]

Just go ahead and say the season is canceled. No use in bsing giving home after what went down yesterday.

 

[Ben]

Season is probably done but it needs to be in order to make the league viable in the future. I'm mixed on what side I agree with, but the economics of the NBA are screwed and changes needed to be made, just a shame that they couldn't come to a middle ground where teams can make money. Think this hurts the sport big time in the long run as there's already a lot of people fed up with the NBA as a whole for quite some time. Think without a doubt, it's prob the #3 sports in terms of popularity in the US, and I don't think there's something else out there that's going to take it over, but I see a lot of people not wanting to pay money to see games next year, small markets might be in some serious shit.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

I'm gonna be pretty damn pumped by next year for Basketball next year if this is the case. My anticipation will be at all time high but that is just the kind of sports fan I am. I get to invest more time in College Basketball this year so I'm not that upset.

 

[Killswitch]

What the NBA, particularly the players, failed to realize is that there's a difference between valuable and necessary. Yes, fans and sponsors are willing to pay a high price for the product. But they're also capable of living without it. It's not essential. That's why the players had no leverage. Fans want to see them play, but they weren't clamoring for it. No one set up tents outside the arenas and refused to leave until the lockout ended.

-From JA Adande. Great, simply captured how most I know feel.

 

[No More Sorrow]

NEW YORK -- Former NBA guard Cuttino Mobley filed a lawsuit against Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, accusing the New York Knicks of pressuring him to retire as a way to save approximately $19 million.

Mobley retired because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disease, shortly after the Knicks acquired him from the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 21, 2008. He knew he had an irregularity with the heart, but an MRI exam the team ordered after his physical revealed the more serious condition.

The lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York contends the Knicks knew of Mobley's condition but pushed to make the trade anyway, then sent him to specialists they knew would oppose him playing, so insurance could pay his contract and it wouldn't count against the luxury tax.

The Knicks were trying to create salary-cap space for the summer of 2010, and the trade allowed them to move Zach Randolph's hefty contract. The Knicks could have voided the trade after Mobley's test, but instead waived the physical requirement -- a decision that the suit said meant $19 million through insurance payments and amounts saved under the luxury tax.

"The Knicks saved millions, and cleared room under the salary cap in their quest to retain the services of other marquis (sic) players, but Mobley's career was effectively ended," the suit says.

It adds that Mobley had been medically cleared to play every year of his career and had never experienced any symptoms, and that he has suffered "irreparable injury, monetary damages, mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation, and other compensable damages as a result of defendant's discriminatory practices."

The Knicks said they understood Mobley's frustrations but were "extremely disappointed" in his actions.

"When the Knicks obtained Cuttino in November of 2008, the team fully expected him to be our starting shooting guard. It was a significant set-back to our team when we learned he would not be able to play following initial reports from his physical," the Knicks said in a statement.

"The team and Cuttino agreed he would then see top experts, including doctors at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and additional experts, for various opinions. On the day of his retirement, Cuttino publicly stated that he had no choice but to follow the advice of the doctors and step away from the league. We are confident Cuttino's claims have no merit and will not prevail."

Mobley averaged 16 points per game in 11 NBA seasons and was expected to assume the guard spot that was vacated when the Knicks dealt Jamal Crawford to Golden State in another trade the same day they acquired Mobley. But he never played for New York, spending his brief time with the team seeing four specialists around the country for further information about the disease, the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in people under 30 years old and linked to the deaths of former Boston Celtics forward Reggie Lewis and Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers.

Then 33, Mobley said at the time that "the doctors said to not chance it and I feel as though they're right, having an 8-year old son, having a long life ahead of me, it's the smart thing."

But the lawsuit says Mobley has never filed his official retirement paperwork and has had discussions about a contract with other teams, but that none of them would sign him because the Knicks had medically disqualified him.

 

[No More Sorrow]

Add Hall-of-Famer Magic Johnson, former NBA All-Star Steve Smith and current Boston Celtics standout Paul Pierce to the list of players that have agreed to play in the "Obama Classic Basketball Game." Take Dwight Howard off that same list.

Howard withdrew from the game Wednesday, but did not reveal his reason. Johnson, Smith and Pierce join an already lengthy roster of participants for the Dec. 12 exhibition in Washington, D.C., which will help raise money for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign

ESPN.com

 

[Slim]

What he need more money for? Doesn't he already have enough? It would be cool to see Magic playing I'm interested in this only cause of Magic. Hope it gets air time.

 

[No More Sorrow]

I'm hoping it does as well. I'd love to see if Magic still has it. And it would just be awesome, if it was on TV i bet it'd get decent ratings.

 

[No More Sorrow]

Representatives for the league and the locked-out players in the NBA's ongoing labor dispute, which reached its 146th day Wednesday, have re-opened negotiations to make one last run at trying to start the season on Christmas Day.

The two sides agreed Monday to resume talks for the first time in nearly two weeks, according to sources close to the situation, with discussions commencing Tuesday aimed at resolving lawsuits recently filed by the players.

Talks are expected to resume Friday after a break for Thanksgiving, with almost no wiggle room left to get a deal done in time for Christmas.

The primary push for the talks, according to The New York Times, is a desire to try to finally end to the five-month impasse in time to start the season on Dec. 25, which has historically marked the start of the NBA's annual introduction to the national network TV schedule. But the latest talks are considered part of settlement talks relating to the litigation as opposed to outright negotiations, according to the Times.

The Times also reported Wednesday that the league has a 66-game season lined up if the sides can agree to the outline of a new labor deal in time for Christmas Day games. NBA commissioner David Stern has said on numerous occasions that the league needs a month after the sides shake hands to finish putting a new labor deal in writing and allow for a compressed training camp and free agency period before the regular season begins.

NBA Players Association attorney Jonathan Schiller, in a statement issued Wednesday night, confirmed the scheduling of "preliminary settlement discussions with the NBA immediately after Thanksgiving."

Yet there were sources on both sides late Wednesday preaching caution, noting that the talks have collapsed several times when a deal appeared to be within reach.

Sources identified Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers as the teams pushing hardest behind the scenes for a deal in principle by the end of the weekend to ensure that a "representative" season can be staged.

And at least three teams that requested anonymity, according to interviews conducted Wednesday by ESPN.com, are highly optimistic that the framework of a deal can be struck by Monday.

But one source close to talks, referring to those aforementioned collapses when a deal seemed imminent at various points during the past two months, said Wednesday night: "Are the parties talking again? Yes. Have they done anything [significant]? No."

ESPN.com

If they opened the season on christams day that would be one of the biggest days in basketball, they'd be ending the lockout for one and for two the quality of games scheduled for christmas is awesome and for them to all be season openers? that'd be crazy.

 

[Slim]

I'm to the point that it doesn't matter I woulda preferred it didn't even start this season.

 

[PHX]

That would be a good Christmas present but don't see it going down. Mine as well stop bsing and just end the season.

 

[Ben]

I have no faith in a deal happening, it seems like there to far apart and neither side seems to want to budge on anything, the leaugue is obviosly going to have to give the players more that the last deal and the players need to realize that there not going to get the same as the last CBA.