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LOS ANGELES -- The National Basketball Players Association's leadership met with players in Los Angeles on Friday, trying to send an apparently-needed message of unity.
"There's definitely some guys in there saying that they're ready to fold," Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee said. "But the majority are ready to stand strong."

Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute disagreed with McGee, saying "there's no such thing as player folding."

"We all know where we're at. Players understand where we're at. There's no players folding," Mbah a Moute said when he exited the meeting. "We've all been together since this whole process and we're going to stay together. We've made a lot of concessions so far, so it's up to the owners now to start having a fair deal."

McGee and Mbah a Moute were two of approximately 20 players -- that met with NBPA executive director Billy Hunter and president Derek Fisher at a Beverly Hills hotel.

Earlier, Hunter told ESPN: "I've got a group of ballplayers who are sophisticated enough and they've said to me, 'Billy hold the line. This is what we want you to do.' So I'm doing the players' bidding. I may be negotiating with a short deck, or a small deck, but we're negotiating.

"So while we're willing to make some concessions, which we've already demonstrated, we're not willing to do or make as many concessions as the NBA wants us to make," Hunter continued. "It's too disproportionate. It doesn't make sense. Particularly when our players are the product."

McGee, the first player to emerge from the talks at roughly 3 p.m. PT, characterized the small number of players to attend the meeting as very disappointing," but said that the union addressed a lot of the players' concerns in Friday's meeting.

The owners and players remain separated on issues such as how to divide the revenue, length of contracts and the structure of a new luxury tax system.
Stern cited contracts and the luxury tax as demands that the players need to acquiesce to in order for a deal to get done.

"[The players] need to tell us we can have shorter contracts so that under-performing contracts can be replaced by high-performing contracts," Stern told 710 ESPN in Los Angeles on Friday. "And they need to tell us that the luxury tax can be considerably harsher than it already is."

Stern said that owners want a more competitive league and to do so would have to limit the financial advantage some big-market teams have over the rest of the teams.

"I would like the league to be more competitive, and to in some ways diminish the [Los Angeles] Lakers' advantage in having that much income in order to pay their players more when you include the luxury tax than other teams," Stern told 710 ESPN.

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, who has been outspoken at times during the labor impasse, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that Stern's idea of league-wide competitive balance is "unrealistic."

"Let's just take the owners and the NBA saying we want every team to be competitive," Wade said. "We want every team to have the same chips to start with. You tell me that corporations and business around the world that every is equal one and I'll show you a lie. You have some up here, you have some down here. That's the game. We have some huge markets. We have some small markets.

"To me, it's not about who has the most chips," Wade added. "I think it's about who manages their chips the right way. That's why I think we have a management problem. Small markets have won championships. San Antonio is a very small market and they have four championships in the last 10 years or whatever the case may be. So I don't know how you ever fix it unless you have realistic goals. It has to get a little more realistic and right now, it's not."

Both parties are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator on Tuesday and owners will hold two days of board meetings starting Wednesday.

Without an agreement to bring to the owners, Stern believes further cancellations are coming.

"Right now, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, just before my owners come into town, having brought in the labor relations committee and Billy (Hunter) having brought in his executive committee, it's time to make the deal," Stern said Thursday. "If we don't make it on Tuesday, my gut -- this is not in my official capacity of cancelling games -- but my gut is that we won't be playing on Christmas Day."

Christmas is traditionally one of the first big days of the NBA season, but Hunter said earlier Wednesday that he fears much worse than cancelled games if the lockout drags on.

"If everybody begins to dig into their respective positions, then I think the league will be decimated. It took us five years to recover from the 1998 lockout and there's probability that we may never recover [from this lockout]," Hunter told ESPN before Friday's sit-down with players. "I think there will be some teams that won't survive. Particularly if the season gets shut down, there will be teams that will not be around next year."

Hunter singled out the Sacramento Kings as a franchise that may fall victim to "forced contraction."

Last week, Stern announced the cancelation of the first two weeks of the season. Each week of missed games will cost the players approximately $82 million in lost salary.

Kevin Garnett, Baron Davis and Tyson Chandler also attended Friday's meeting, along with Jason Kapono, Leon Powe and Chuck Hayes.
http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/ ... ress-unity

To me it is a bit of a disingenuous statement by Hunter to say that a prolonged lockout could cause the Kings to be contracted. It's a scare tactic and quite inaccurate.

First of all the Kings financial difficulty is due to the owners' losses in their other ventures primarily in Vegas. I'm not saying they are making money on the basketball team, but they aren't losing money there either. If the owners can't weather the strike, there are other options than contraction. In fact, contraction isn't even the right word. Contraction is when a league closes down a franchise. If a franchise ceases operation on its own the term is "folds." There is no way that the Maloofs fold the Kings, because if they get desperate enough they could sell the Kings.

As for the other stuff, I support the owners in quest for shorter maximum contracts because too many players phone it in, once they have a deal (hi Marvin). The owners need to make better decisions, but it's very hard to project when a player is going to become too content to try hard. Hard to sympathize with union on this one.

On the topic of competitiveness, screw Dwayne Wade. Mavericks, Lakers, Celtics, Heat, Spurs, Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, and Sixers. That's the 9 franchises that have won a title in the last 30 years. And 5 of those franchises have 25 of those 30 titles. Every time someone wants to say there's no small market problem they bring up the Spurs, but the Spurs won the lottery with David Robinson and then on a year in which his injury landed them in the lottery they won again with Tim Duncan. I'm not disputing that their front office particularly scouting foreign players isn't among the best. Smart management got them over the hump to win titles, but their foundation was as much luck as anything. If Duncan lands in Boston (who tanked horribly to get the most ping pong balls that year) then maybe there would be no small market championship poster child.

Good insight on the contraction stuff evildallas

But the other stuff all I have to say is Josh Childress, Shelden Williams, Marvin Williams, Billy Knight.

Duncan lands in Boston then where does Paul Pierce go 2 years later? Does Duncan have a middling team for years and management convinced Antoine Walker is the 2nd banana for years?

Revisionist history because certain franchises overvalue below average players for years. IE Antoine Walker (Boston & ATL), Josh Childress, Shelden Williams, Marvin Williams, Billy Knight Or Billups getting played at shooting guard instead of "Twin Tower" backcourts or Jason Terry @ PG.

I dont sympathize with any side but just saying. I'd say its more stupidity that got us here, bcuz ATL is one of the bigger markets. They mis-evaluated players and should have tanked in 07 and 08 to stack their squad. But IMO the F.O. is scared of the draft evaluations and just goes with consensus picks and trades.