It has been my opinion for some time now that the NBPA cannot win a battle with the NBA, so long as the owners stay together... that eventually, the players would have to accept what they most want to avoid: the dreaded hard cap.
But I also thought owner unity would last well into the new year. And recent leaks from the negotiating table seem to indicate that isn't the case. According to a story first reported by Dave McMenamin and Chris Broussard of ESPN, the sides seemed to be making significant progress in Tuesday's talks. But when the owners started discussing specific points among themselves, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and Robert Sarver of the Suns raised objections to many of the proposed deal points.
Lakers owner Jerry Buss and James Dolan of the Knicks were said to be "visibly annoyed" by Gilbert and Sarver's hard-line stance, and it's not hard to see why. Buss has reportedly accepted the idea that revenue sharing and other competitive balance measures - changes that will significantly impact, if not eliminate, many of the Lakers' biggest advantages - are inevitable.
Unsurprisingly, David Stern was quick to discount the very notion that his owners were losing solidarity.
What do we make of all this?
Without questioning the talents or journalistic integrity of McMenamin, Broussard or Kevin Ding, who wrote the Jerry Buss piece for the Orange County Register... I can't get past the fact that both stories do such a good job of reinforcing the points made by the NBPA and league. Union president Derek Fisher suggests the owners are split on key points... and then, suddenly, an unnamed source gives ESPN a story illustrating that, and giving fans a couple of "bad guys" in the process. And the "Lakers are willing to accept a hard cap" story can just as easily be read as a warning shot across the union's bow.
Point is, both sides in this dispute are well-versed in the media game.
Meanwhile, it seems fair to suggest that Derek Fisher is the last person who should be questioning anyone's solidarity - not after just 35 players showed up for the NBPA meeting in Las Vegas yesterday. There are over 400 union members currently... and about 60 in Las Vegas alone, participating in the Impact league.
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