DEVIOUS 1

Yes, you did.

Your right. The owners did do all those things. They have also been using bully negotiating tactics which haven't helped things along either.

Although them dropping out of the CBA to begin with was a foregone conclusion since what? 2006? I remember hearing about how the owners were going to opt out at the first opportunity AFTER the the CBA was signed. Add in the fact that the players have all but admitted they have gotten the better of the deal in that CBA and it's no surprise they opted out, or it shouldn't be to anyone paying attention.

But stop it with the poor players as victims card. Like I said, they know they got a sweetheart deal the last time around, and had no intentions of renegotiating from the get go. The plan from day one was to decertify and go to court, which means they have been asking for the red herring financials from ownership to stall the mediations in a attempt to disguise their true intentions for PR purposes. So, they are liars.

But keep drinking that Player Koolaid Deus, the poor modern day slaves of our era.

In De Smith we Trust!

PatsWickedPissah

Strident advocates for each side ignore that the owners moves to revise the TV contract to give them revenue during a lockout (since Dotyed out) and the players' day one plans to decertify and go to the courts as evidenced by their hiring a litigator (DeMaurice Smith) as opposed to a negotiator were both tactics to prepare the battlefield with the available legal and business tools at their respective disposal.

Yes, the owners can be said to be at fault for causing this battle since it is they who insist on changing the status quo. But who can argue that the business climate has not markedly deteriorated since the last CBA? And does anyone think that public funds are going to be readily available as they were in most instances in the past for stadia?

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Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as "bad luck." RAH