Quote:
Originally Posted by eyemissgilmour
I definitely agree the first offer was crazy. But it was designed to do two things:
1) antagonize the players
2) telegraph an eventual 50/50 split (which most of us realized immediately after the offer and which Bettman admitted himself was the intention)
As for the antagonizing aspect of that offer, I hate to play the "he started it" card but the PA had raised the league's hackles previously for no other reason than to be confrontational (by refusing to begin negotiations until the summer when the league tried to start a year ago, and even before that totally crapping all over the league's realignment proposal).
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Yeah, the whole antagonizing aspect of both parties behaviour pisses me off to no end. It is like neither side has any interest in taking the high road and they both just want to needle each other at every turn. It really is a master class in mature negotiation technique.
As for telegraphing a 50-50 split, I don't know that it really did that any better than saying 'look guys, it's going to be 50-50 +/- 1%'. Hell, everyone knew where the ball would land after the NBA labour issues and I don't doubt the PA and the players knew it as well. The jack-asses in question spent months arguing over stuff they already had accepted (at least in their own heads) just to show that they were tough negotiators.
F**k them all.
