NBA players ponder move after ultimatum

More than 400 NBA players spent Sunday wondering what to do next, with the push to decertify their union growing stronger after the NBA presented yet another ultimatum.

Commissioner David Stern gave the players until Wednesday to accept what is essentially a 50-50 split of league revenue and a soft-cap system with several restrictions -- or face a follow-up proposal that includes a hard-cap system and a 53-47 split in favor of the owners.

The players received 57 percent of league revenue in the previous CBA. Their most recent offer moved as low as a 51-49 split in favor of the players, down from previous offers of 53-47 and 52.5-47.5, but they refused to go to 50-50. The union also is against a call by a majority of the owners for added restrictions on luxury tax-paying teams.

Players are frustrated not only with the hard-line stance by the owners but by how slow the union leadership has been in regard to decertification, which could have created some leverage for the players much earlier in the negotiations.

Nets guard Deron Williams, who has spent the lockout playing in Turkey, expressed his anger publicly on Twitter: "I've been ready to sign a decertification petition since July. Can't believe we are just now going this route!"

Agents in favor of decertification started working feverishly to organize another conference call to educate players on disbanding the union as a means of manufacturing leverage against the owners to end the 130-day lockout. But because the process could take as long as 45 days to begin with the National Labor Relations Board, it is a move that could lead to the cancellation of the 2011-12 season.

But just as that might not matter to small-market owners who want a landslide victory in these negotiations, it also is becoming an acceptable outcome to a growing number of players.

Stern said the threat of decertification, which arose late last week, is "not an issue that we're focusing on at this point. We are trying to make a deal with the National Basketball Players Association."

Jeffrey Kessler, who serves as the union's outside counsel and as its lead negotiator in talks with the NBA, led the NFLPA last spring in its decertification effort. But as for the NBPA's move, Kessler said, "We're not going to talk about it." Union president Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter have been against the move to decertify.

The decertification process with the National Labor Relations Board needs 30 percent of membership to begin, would have to be reviewed and approved by the NLRB, and could take up to 45 days to get to a vote of the players. A simple majority would be required to officially decertify.

It should be made clear that the move to decertify is not a poison pill, as the 45-day window would allow the league and union to return to the negotiating table. Though it appears unlikely, the sides could return to the table before Wednesday to attempt to bridge a gap that -- despite all of the angry rhetoric -- has been significantly reduced.

"You're going to have to ask [the owners]," Kessler said of the potential for more talks before Wednesday. "They presented us an ultimatum at 2 in the morning. If they want to change . . . we'll meet if they change. We don't have to meet to consider this deal."