At the time, Jordan was a superstar who had made $33 million — the most in league history — in his final season with the Chicago Bulls.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/05/sports/basketball/hard-line-factions-threaten-latest-nba-negotiations.html?src=tp

Papabear wrote:

RonRon wrote:I knew it, that's why when ESPN called on Jordan to work things out since he was once a player on the other side and a team owner now, he didn't do so. Because he is who he is, a stubborn, take it my way or the highway kind of guy, and he thinks he deserves the best for him. As a player, I loved him, even thought he killed my Knick's, he was greatness and backed everything up, injured or sick, he was one tough guy. What makes him is also what kills him, he wants to be the best and influenced his team to do so. Years, after his retirements, I learned he was a horrible team mate because he would make them feel like crap, curse them out, and even get physical with them. It worked out, as they all respected and feared him, but that's no way to treat a team...

Papabear Says

If only Ewing had his balls we might have won one championship.

Maybe it was a combo of Ewing not having the right help, but also him not wanting help and wanting to be the man that ultimately was both his strength and his weakness. Ewing would not tell this coaches when his was in pain and would wear down. He was both a warrior and a fool.

Jordan was great scorer but in time had to learn when to let the game come to him and when his teammates could carry it. Jax taught him and he was the perfect student and became the perfect beast.

Arbitrator George Cohen’ suggestions, Kessler said, had been hijacked by Stern and turned into the owners’ official offer. The money quote from my news story, after the 8 1/2 hours of meetings and 60 minutes of dueling news conferences had ended: “The story here is they want it all,” Kessler bellowed. “They want a win, win, win, win. We wanted a compromise. Our 51 percent offer was based on a fair system. They would have to come to us on the system, but they did not.”

So although the sides are close on the money, they are not close on what is fair and what is unfair. And now comes the waiting (until Wednesday, when the owners say their offer will expire), and the fallout.

Let’s have a looksee around the Web to see how this story is evolving:

Ben Golliver of CBSSports.com: “On Saturday, as labor talks between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association were winding down, at least three NBA players took to Twitter to express their frustration with Jordan.
“I’m not wearing Jordans no more,” Washington Wizards guard Nick Young said. “Can’t believe what I just seen and heard from MJ. Elvis Done Left The Building.” ”Damn MJ,” Indiana Pacers guard Paul George wondered aloud. “That’s how you feel?” Later, Golden State Warriors rookie wing Klay Thompson replied to George: “You think the 1996 MJ would pull this? Straight hypocrite bro.” George agreed: “Man straight hypocrite bro.. He should’ve been the 1st one behind us smh

Nalod wrote:
"Not wearing Jordans anymore".........Thats some funny stuff!

These guys think they are still 13?

I guess they don't have a Nike deal? If they do they need to becareful what they say.

MJ is a freaking owner guys! He made his money and now owns a team! What do they expect?

Hyprocrite? no, he IS AN OWNER!

Is is fighting for the same thing the players are fighting for: MONEY!

Yeah but did Jordan have to be out front on this??? That's just creating more animosity. The owners could've made a bit more concessions on the system side so the Union could save face and get this deal done! This tough guy attitude is prolonging the dispute.

N.B.A. Owners Give Players 4 Days to Accept Final Offer
By HOWARD BECK
A perilous four-month standoff between N.B.A. players and owners has been reduced to a four-day window, with an ultimatum that might destroy the 2011-12 season.

Negotiations on a new labor deal failed again Saturday night, this time with specific consequences: The players have until Wednesday afternoon to accept the league’s final offer, or be dealt a significantly worse alternative.

They are almost certain to reject both proposals, throwing the league into turmoil.

“Right now, we’ve been given the ultimatum,” the president of the players union, Derek Fisher, said in a news conference early Sunday morning. “And our answer is: that’s not acceptable to us.”

The next move made by the players might be the one they have dutifully avoided since the lockout began — dissolving their union. A powerful group of agents and players are clamoring for such an action, which would shift the battle to the courts and perhaps buy them the leverage they need. But it could take months to execute, leaving little hope for salvaging the season.

The league’s fate should be clearer by the close of business Wednesday. That was the deadline given to the union by Commissioner David Stern to accept the owners’ offer: effectively, a 50-50 split of revenues and a package of harsh restrictions on team spending and free agency.

If the union balks, Stern said, the owners will withdraw it and instead offer the players a 47 percent share, combined with a so-called “flex-cap” system that, in practice, imposes a hard cap on payrolls.

“We hope that this juxtaposition will cause the union to assess its position and accept the deal,” Stern said.

Union leaders seem unlikely to reconsider. “But hope springs eternal,” Stern said, “and we would love to see the union accept the proposal that is now on the table.”

This latest negotiating session, the 21st of the lockout, lasted for eight and a half hours, ending around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Under the guidance of George Cohen, a federal mediator, the parties actually narrowed the gap on some crucial items before the talks collapsed.

The players — who had vowed not to accept less than 52.5 percent of league revenues — proposed a 51 percent share, with 1 percent devoted to aid retired players. That moved them within 1 percent of the league’s longstanding proposal.

On Saturday, the owners proposed a “band” that would pay the players 49 to 51 percent, depending on revenue growth. But the union said it amounted to a 50 percent offer, because the threshold for growth was so high that the share would never get to 51. Jeff Kessler, the union’s outside counsel and chief negotiator, called the 49 to 51 band “a fraud.”

Yet it was ultimately the mechanics of a new system, not the revenue split, that killed the talks.

The league’s standing proposal would eliminate spending options for teams that pay the luxury tax, by banning them from sign-and-trade deals and the use of the midlevel exception. At Cohen’s suggestion, the league proposed a “mini-midlevel” that would start at $2.5 million — half the value of the full midlevel — and would be limited to two-year deals.

The N.B.A.’s proposal also called for an additional penalty — a so-called “repeater tax” — on teams that exceed the tax threshold three times in a five-year span. The union is open to the concept, but not at the steep rates proposed by the league.

The net effect of the N.B.A.’s proposal, the union said, would be to eliminate the highest-spending teams from acquiring top talent — thus devastating the free-agent market.

Union officials have been willing to compromise on the revenue split pending some degree of compromise from owners in other areas.

“The big story here is they want it all,” Kessler said, growing more agitated with every sentence.

He said the repeater-tax provision, as proposed, would amount to a hard salary cap, something the union has opposed for decades.

“Those deals are not acceptable for players today, it’s not acceptable for future generations of players,” Kessler said. “They want a win-win-win-win. We wanted to compromise. They’re not giving the players a lot of choice.”

The union wants tax-paying teams to retain sign-and-trade options and to have use of a full midlevel exception, at $5 million. As a compromise, union officials proposed that the midlevel be available to taxpayers only every other year.

Saturday’s meeting involved full negotiating committees on both sides, plus a few added participants. Joining the owners’ delegation were two of the leading hardliners — Charlotte’s Michael Jordan and Portland’s Paul Allen — plus Miami’s Micky Arison, who is one of the most eager to cut a deal. Chauncey Billups, the Knicks point guard, joined the players’ side.

Billy Hunter, the union’s executive director, left without speaking to reporters. A union spokesman said that Hunter was tired and feeling under the weather.

No additional talks are scheduled, nor expected, now that the N.B.A. has issued its ultimatum.

The players are in an untenable position, with choices that range from bad to worse. Dissolving the union may be the inevitable course — whether it comes by force, from a disenchanted faction of players, or by union leaders themselves.

Neither Fisher nor Kessler would entertain that possibility early Sunday morning, but the union has always held out decertification as a measure of last resort. Going that route would allow the players to sue the league under federal antitrust law, but resolution could take years.

The real value of decertification is to create chaos and uncertainty for the league and to motivate the owners to negotiate.

In the meantime, Fisher said he saw no value in putting the league’s proposal up to a vote of the players.

“Our job is to take a deal to our players that we’re comfortable presenting, and that we feel will get passed,” he said, adding, “At this point, we don’t have a deal to propose.”

These idiot owners are not negotiating in good faith, nor have they been. The deal was there at 51% from the very beginning The owners are trying to take advantage of the players by proposing terms to provoke rejection. They don't seem to care about the fans or the sport. They are spoiled brats who are toying with our league.

I have lost all respect for MJ. What a tool. I get that he's just a terrible owner and terrible judge of talent and egomaniac, thus his results have not been profitable. Too effing bad for him. Sell the team to someone who cares about hoops and the fans. *rant over*