So here we are, folks. Today is the day that the NBA Players Association will hold a meeting on whether to accept the owner's latest proposal. If they do, the season will probably begin on December 15. If not, who knows what will happen.
In advance of this meeting, the NBA went on another PR blitz. First, the league held a 90-minute Twitter Q&A, which proved to be a pretty bad idea. That came just after the entire CBA proposal was "obtained" by USA Today. Later, the league put together a YouTube video of their power-point presentation of their proposal, boiling down an incredibly complex thing into a few slides. Finally, David Stern himself wrote a memo to the players that included this line.
I encourage you also to focus on the numerous compromises that were made to the NBA’s initial bargaining positions in these negotiations, including our move away from a "hard" salary cap, the withdrawal of our proposal to "roll back" salaries in existing player contracts, our agreement to continue to allow players to negotiate fully guaranteed contracts, and our agreement to a 50/50 split of BRI. While we understand fully that our proposal does not contain everything that the Players Association wanted in this negotiation, the same is true for the NBA.
The idea of the league doing all this to get the players to accept the deal is ... odd. Let's just say "odd" for now, because I'm in a good mood.
Anyway, here is your open thread.