David Stern delivers message to NBA agents

As agents pushing the decertification agenda furiously contacted their players to build up support for the aggressive move to dissolve the NBA Players Association rather than accept the CBA proposal from the owners, Commissioner David Stern went on ESPN's SportsCenter Friday night to get a message out to these agents.

Stern reiterated terms from a federal lawsuit the league filed in August, which asked the court to not only declare that the lockout does not violate antitrust laws, but also asked the court to agree that if the union decertifies, all contracts that were agreed upon under the previous collective bargaining agreement would be voided.

"If the union is not in existence, neither are $4 billion worth of guaranteed contracts that were entered into on the condition that there is a union," Stern said in the interview. "So if the agents insist upon playing with fire, my guess is that they would get themselves burned."

The union will present the offer to its 30 player reps -- and likely a host of other players -- at a meeting tomorrow morning. From there the union will decide what to do next, with bringing the proposal to a membership vote as an option, but one that is decreasing as a popular choice.

While the meeting is going on, it is expected that a group of agents will take a petition to decertify to the National Labor Relations Board. The union could also follow a move by the NFLPA last spring and surrender their leadership and speed up the process by declaring a Disclaimer of Interest, which would also dissolve the union but would not require a 30-percent vote to present to the NLRB.

Either way, this would begin the long and painful process that Stern suggests will produce one definitive result: "making it even more likely that there won't be a season."

NBA REVISED PROPOSAL

The NBA's revised proposal, which was made the NBA Players Association on Thursday night, will be presented to player representatives of the 30 NBA teams. Here are the changes made from the proposal made last Sunday.

MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION: For luxury tax paying teams, this was increased to $3 million a year for three years, up from $2.5 million for two. A provision was also added for teams just below the salary cap to allow an offer of $2.5 million for two years.

SIGN-AND-TRADE: Tax paying teams will be permitted to engage in sign-and-trade deals during the first two years of the CBA, but after then it will be prohibited for taxpaying teams. The previous offer prohibited sign-and-trades for the entire deal.

MINIMUM PAYROLL: Teams will be required to maintain a payroll of at least 85 percent of the salary cap (almost $50 million based on a $58 million cap), up from 75 percent in the previous offer. The payroll floor raises to 90 percent in the third year of the deal.

BIRD RIGHTS: Teams can offer annual raises at a 6.5 percent maximum, up one percent from the previous offer. (It should be noted here that in the previous agreement, teams could give 10.5 percent annual raises).

OPT-OUT: Players whose salaries are below the league average may opt-out of their deal. In the previous offer, opt-outs were universally prohibited.

CBA TERM: The agreement would be a 10-year deal, with an opt-out after the sixth year. The previous agreement had an opt-out after the seventh year.

* - NOTE: There are "B-list" terms, which union executive director Billy Hunter has termed "ancillary issues," (i.e.: draft eligibility age, D-League assignments, required off days) that came up during negotiations to revise the proposal have upset players. David Stern said these terms are not part of the proposal and still up for negotiation.