NBA.com's Article on Labor Talks: Season On The Brink...

Here is the NBA.com's Article on Labor Talks: Season On The Brink...:

Mostly because the actions of so many are indefensible.

With this latest breakdown in talks between the two sides in the NBA’s labor madness comes a sobering truth about this entire process. It’s never been about saving the game or even preserving it for the fans. It’s about two sides fighting over a billion dollar pie and each one wanting the biggest piece. Someone has to win and someone has to lose, compromise be damned!

We knew as much when this thing started, but we seemed to lose sight of that in the past few months with all the details tossed into the fray to deflect our attention from the fundamentals of this dispute. Our confidence has been betrayed by the men who have asked for that very thing from us, the basketball loving public,. And here we stand, just days away from what should have been the start of a season, staring at a potential season on the brink.

When the federal mediator both sides agreed to let dive into the middle of this battle packs up his stuff and heads for the door after three days of listening to everyone talk, it’s clear the “gulf” between the positions NBA Commissioner David Stern spoke of last week is greater than most of us imagined.

Unlike many of my less cynical colleagues here at the hideout and beyond, I wasn’t expecting a resolution to this process this week. I did (foolishly) assume that some tangible progress this week could lead to a deal sometime in the very near future.

But not after reading these words from NBPA attorney Jeffrey Kessler after the Board of Governors meeting:

This meeting was hijacked. Something happened at their [owners] meeting. This is not the move where the owners were yesterday. We were making progress, as you heard.

They came back, they came without the commissioner. They came with Paul Allen. We were told Paul Allen was here to express the views of the other members of the Board of Governors. And that view was: ‘Our way or the highway.

That’s what we were told. We were shocked. We went in there trying to negotiate, and they came in and said, ‘You either accept 50-50 or we’re done. And we won’t discuss anything else.

Point fingers in whatever direction you like. Both sides are doing the same now without hesitation.

We’re inclined to take the index fingers on both hands, point them in both directions and remind the owners and players that they are playing with the one sacred item in this entire affair. If they think the fans, die-hard and casual alike, will simply assume the position and wait in the parking lot until someone frees them all, they are mistaken.

The owners and players should be mindful of the sacrifices that need to be made or risk sacrificing all that’s been built in recent years and risk doing any further damage than they’ve already done …