3 Ways that the NBA talks could demise

If we as basketball fans really are following this NBA collective bargaining closely, Tuesday would have been the day for whiplash.

At long last, there was straight talk about serious movement in the offers. David Stern confidently announced that his owners could have been convinced to offer players 50 percent of basketball revenues -- long thought to have been the magic number. Stern also revealed the owners previously had given up fighting for rollbacks of existing contracts, contracts that are only partially guaranteed and, significantly, a hard cap. 

Seriously, Stern... put a cork in it...seriously.  

In other words, the owners were in the realm of reality on the money issue and had made important concessions on the players' "blood" issues.

And yet ... on that very day, the talks broke apart entirely. Union executive director Billy Hunter says it could be months before the two sides meet again, and the league says it is less than a week from announcing the cancellation of the first two weeks of the regular season.

What is a fan to think? There are three possibilities for what could happen next:
Scenario 1: Bump in the road

Stern says the discussion of splitting BRI in half took place informally, with key personnel from each side agreeing to attempt to go back to their respective groups to try to sell them on the deal. Stern says that while he was talking his owners into it, there was a knock on the door. It was the players, saying their group would not go for a 50/50 deal.

In telling the story, Stern and his deputy, Adam Silver, expressed all manner of surprise and disappointment at this news.

Meanwhile, a union source disputes some of the fine points, saying that first and foremost, it's a major breach of negotiating etiquette to publicly expose the contents of private sidebar conversations. The source also says (and the league denies) that the league did not exactly offer half. Instead, according to the source, it offered to guarantee players 49 percent of revenues, while giving them the right to earn as much as 51 percent of basketball revenues if players could command contracts worth that much.

The union source also maintains that the players did not flatly reject the NBA's offer, as described, but offered another wrinkle in response, to reduce the minimum amount players would be guaranteed from their previous position of 53 percent. (To what, the source wouldn't say.)

However, disgusted as union sources might be with the NBA's handling of the public relations, the fact is that the two sides are not, after all this, very far apart. In fact, they are much closer than they have ever been.

And here's another wrinkle: Two sources in the room agree that the particular players present Tuesday (the list includes Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Theo Ratliff, Maurice Evans, Matt Bonner, Roger Mason Jr., etc.) were particularly strident, more strident than the average player.

Garnett, in particular, has been mentioned as among the uncompromising.

And these are the players who did not play ball with the NBA's offer.

In other words, maybe if the rank-and-file of the players' union were to fully understand the NBA's best offer, the mood would shift.

The NBA says it needs a handshake deal by Monday or it will cancel the first two weeks of the season. Despite all the hard rhetoric, maybe that's still possible. The two sides were hundreds of millions a year apart Tuesday morning. Now they're down to a couple of percentage points. There is a deal to be had, if there's a will to make it happen.
Scenario 2: Now is not the time

Generally, it has been assumed that the passage of time hurts the players, who lose all their NBA income in a lockout. The owners, on the other hand, generally have massive income from other sources and in most cases are losing money by operating their NBA teams anyway.

Billy Hunter says he knows some of the owners have long had the idea of getting players nice and desperate from missed paychecks before forcing them into tough deals.

If feeling the pain of lost income, something that applies to all players and some owners, is the key to getting each side's best offer, maybe this can be a repeat of 1999, with both sides experiencing life without basketball for a few months before the bargaining gets serious enough to end with a handshake.
Scenario 3: Pandora's box

It does not come naturally to the supremely self-assured Stern to express worry or doubt, but he has long expressed the concern that if the players and the owners did not strike a deal to save the full season, it could indeed get very ugly.

To the extent he has explained that comment, he has alluded to the two sides' positions "hardening," something Hunter also has discussed.

But it's more than a hardening. There is also the matter of the courts. These two combatants have a lawsuit active in the Southern District of New York with a hearing set for Nov. 2. They have complaints before the National Labor Relations Board.

And they have a band of agents agitating for decertification, which threatens to not just make talks with the league incredibly complicated and legalistic, but to destabilize the union entirely.

Any one of those legal actions could lead to delays, hassles and indignation.

Most notably, if the union were to deceptive, something Hunter has never been enthusiastic about, it likely would be against the will of the union. Which means players would end up being represented by a lawyer to be named later, likely, sources say, someone who has not been part of the process yet at all. That lawyer presumably would be selected by the agitating agents, and it's anybody's

In other words, there could be an almighty tangle of judges, legal expenses and agitation.

It is entirely possible that a negotiation that is paused over $100 million or so in revenues could disintegrate into $100 million or so in legal fees. 

Cowboys are sticking by their quarterback = More BLUNDERS to come

Just a few weeks ago, Tony Romo presided over the worst fourth-quarter collapse in the Dallas Cowboys' illustrious franchise history.




Now, he can add the worst overall collapse in franchise history to his resume after the Cowboys figured out a way to blow a 24-point, third-quarter lead.

Romo...seriously?

Detroit 34, Dallas 30.


Unbelievable.


Seriously, let that marinate.




In the opener against the New York Jets, the Cowboys had been 246-0-1 with a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter. Before Sunday's debacle, the Cowboys' biggest blown lead was 21 points, which last occurred in 1965 against the hated Washington Redskins.


All you can do is shake your head.
Really, you saw the best of Tony Romo in a brilliant first half as he pushed Dallas to a 20-3 lead that swelled to 27-3 after the Cowboys took the second-half kickoff and drove for a touchdown.
Then we witnessed the worst of Romo. He threw three second-half interceptions -- two were absolutely awful decisions -- providing the catalyst for Detroit's comeback.


He finished with 331 yards passing with three interceptions and three touchdowns.
No way Jason Garrett's hair will remain red with a few more seasons of Romo as his quarterback. He'll either pull it out because Romo drives him crazy, or it'll turn white because Romo's poor decision-making is accelerating the aging process.


Understand, this has nothing to do with Romo's toughness. Or courage. Or leadership. Romo, who took an injection to play Sunday, has removed any doubt about his intangibles in those areas by playing with a fractured rib the past three games.




Actually, this is about a 31-year-old, nine-year veteran making the same dumb decisions season after season. There's no reason, if we're honest, to think it'll ever stop.
All you can do is hope it does because Romo isn't going anywhere. The Cowboys have wrapped a Kevlar vest around his job security, and Jon Kitna is not a viable option because Romo is the better player.

And even if the Cowboys chose to spend a first-round pick on a quarterback next season, that dude is not going to beat Romo out. You're living in fantasy land if you think someone is going to trade the Cowboys the rights to Andrew Luck.
For the foreseeable future, Romo is your guy. Deal with it.
"There's no issue about faith in Romo in any place in this organization. Period." Jerry Jones said. "We have a lot of faith in Romo. This doesn't touch that.
"If you're going to try to make some plays, then you're going to have some bad plays. As Tony goes, we'll go."
How comforting.
"He knows that I believe in him," Garrett said. "Our staff believes in him. His teammates believe in him."
Still, this loss begins and ends with Romo after his brilliance helped the Cowboys forge a huge lead and his interceptions resuscitated the Lions.
A 1-yard touchdown pass to Jason Witten gave the Cowboys a 27-3 lead with 12:23 left in the third quarter, and when the Cowboys forced a punt the outcome seemed inevitable.
Then Romo gave the Lions hope.
He directed a sideline pass toward Dez Bryant, but linebacker Bobby Carpenter, a groomsman at Romo's wedding this spring, stepped into the flat and easily intercepted the pass.
Carpenter, the Cowboys' first-round pick in 2006, returned it 34 yards for a touchdown.
Seven plays later, Romo threw another interception.




You can probably blame this one on Laurent Robinson because he let Chris Houston get inside him on a slant. Houston returned the interception 56 yards for a touchdown, pulling the Lions within 27-17.
Suddenly, Detroit believed it could win. The Lions closed to 30-27 on a 51-yard field goal by Jason Hanson with 4:22 left, which gave Romo plenty of time to make one more bad decision.

On first down, Romo heaved a pass off his back foot -- he was under duress -- toward Witten. Stephen Tulloch tipped the badly underthrown pass into the air before intercepting it.

You simply can't throw that pass. Not in that situation. Not with a chance to still salvage the game.
"I'm not taking anything away from them, they made a play when they had to," Romo said. "I shouldn't have allowed them to have that chance."


We've heard it all before. No doubt, we'll hear it all again.

Amile's Guide of How-to on Sports Jerseys

The three fastest-growing diseases in America today are diabetes, Lyme disease, and sports jerseys.

Wearing a jersey used to be for kids. You be Tom Brady and I'll be Darrelle Revis. Now people with actual jobs are wearing them. At 6, it's adorable. At 36, deplorable.

You can't swing your arms at an NFL game without hitting somebody in one. (A very good idea, by the way.)

You say it's your way of expressing devotion to your team? I say try a hat. It doesn't make you look like an adult Trick-or-Treater.

What's your jersey dream? Someone shrieking, "Oh, my God! There's Brian Urlacher! Oh, wait. No, no. It's just Justin from purchasing."?

Women in jerseys? Fine. But dude, you're really going out with another man's name on your back? Do you have no male pride?

But like gluten-free beer, the jersey flood seems un-damn-able. But can we at least have some rules?

Jersey Rule No. 1: You may not wear a jersey past age 29.

Exceptions:

a) You are immediately related to the person whose name is on the back.

b) You are the person whose name is on the back. (Team photo required.)

Jersey Rule No. 2: You may not wear a jersey without a shirt underneath it, especially NBA jerseys. We do not want to see your rash. Or your spare tire. Or your nipples. My God, people.

You may not, under any circumstances, wear a jersey AND a hat. Who are you, Tony Romo?

Jersey Rule No. 3: You may not wear a jersey if somebody else in your group is already wearing one. This is also known as The Fedora Rule. No two guys in any group can be wearing a fedora. The second man's fedora must be trashed, crushed or sold. You never saw Sinatra and Dean Martin wearing one, right?

Jersey Rule No. 4: You may not, under any circumstances, wear a jersey AND a hat. Who are you, Tony Romo?

Jersey Rule No. 5: You may not wear a jersey with your own name on it if you didn't wear it on a real team once. Please. Are you expecting Bill Belichick to look up in the stands and go, "Flanagan! Get in there at tailback!"?

Jersey Rule No. 6: You may not wear a jersey of a player who has been gone from your team for more than a year, unless that player is in the Hall of Fame or will be soon. I saw a guy Monday night at the New York Giants game wearing an Amani Toomer jersey. I believe Toomer is managing a Round Table pizza in Parsippany now. Buy anoth

er damn jersey, cheapskate.

Jersey Rule No. 7:If you have a nose tackle body, you must wear a nose tackle's jersey. We do not need to see your 385 pounds busting out of a DeSean Jackson jersey. It'sunseamly.

Jersey Rule No. 8: Absolutely no cutesy wrong-color jerseys. No pink Yankees jerseys. No camouflage Cowboys jerseys. And no new University of Maryland jerseys. They look like an explosion at a Benjamin Moore store.

Jersey Rule No. 9: No wearing NBA shorts with your NBA jersey at any time. Horrible. It makes you look like Red Klotz. (Corollary: Do not wear all-white to watch a tennis match, either. Pathetic.)

Jersey Rule No. 10: No wearing your jersey anywhere but a) to the stadium or b) home. Nobody at the urologist's office wants to talk about your Ray Lewis jersey.

If you still qualify under all these edicts, then you must sign these waivers before donning a jersey:

Jersey Waiver A: By wearing a jersey, you are waiving your rights to any sexual activity for the evening. No woman in history has ever said, "Oooh, that guy wearing the jersey of another man! That's hot!"

Jersey Waiver B: By wearing a jersey, you are waiving any semblance of coolness.

David M. BuckwalterRooting for your school is one thing. Wearing offensive shirts to root against Michigan is quite another.

"It's like going to a concert in the T-shirt of the band that's playing that night," says Ari Pillar, 29, who was wearing a simple, cool retro Giants T-shirt Monday night. "It's cooler to wear another band's T-shirt. But wearing a jersey of somebody you're watching? That's way high up the Dork Scale."

(A note on T-shirts: Enough cussing, especially those West F***in Virginia T-shirts that West Virginia fans are wearing. Your athletic director, Oliver Luck, was right. Show a little class. And Ohio State fans: No "Ann Arbor is a whore" T-shirts either. And, Wisconsin students, we've all seen 1,000 variations on "Huck the Fuskers" already. Try something original.)

Jersey Waiver C: By wearing a jersey, you are waiving any contact with the very person you're worshipping.

"Those are the guys we went out of our way to avoid in the autograph lines," says former Baltimore Ravens QB Trent Dilfer. "They were the ones who wanted your email address."

Jersey Waiver D: By wearing a jersey to a road game, you waive your right to a busted-free nose. Wearing a Lakers jersey to a Celtics game is like wearing an Obama T-shirt to a Dick Cheney book signing. Bring gauze.

"My wife tells me it's dangerous," says Giants fan Adam Herman, 31, who spoke from inside a Brandon Jacobs jersey. "But I do it. I wore it in Philly to an Eagles game. It was a little scary, but I got out OK."

Of course, you might not get out OK if you wear another team's jersey to Adam's house.

"Won't happen," he says. "If my friends come over in a Jets jersey, they're not getting in. They can just turn right around. No exceptions."

Adam, I'm begging you and all jerseyites out there: Rent, lease or purchase a life.

And it better not involve cowbells.

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