At the end of Monday’s session with reporters following the first meeting with the NBA players union in weeks, NBA commissioner David Stern was asked if he thought the players were negotiating in good faith.
After a pause and stare, Stern replied, “I would say not.”
He backed up those words with two lawsuits filed Tuesday, an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board and a lawsuit in federal district court in New York.
In part, the suits are preventative and procedural, especially with the threat of union decertification. But they’re also intended to rattle the players, who’ve spent the summer reminding fans how great last season was and how much less great it’ll be if they spend the next one overseas.
The players’ threat is no less evil than Stern’s pursuit of a drastic overhaul of the economic situation he and NBA owners created themselves.
Stern has a way with timing and effect, but does the NBA’s latest move inspire “good faith” that it’s trying to save games from being lost this fall? We would say not.
