Las Vegas, NV – A letter written by NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher leaked as players and owners prepared to hold separate meetings Thursday in different cities 1,200 miles apart.
Fisher's letter, addressed to his fellow players, made a case that the two sides in the NBA lockout are a lot closer than media reports indicated after what was portrayed as the latest round of failed negotiations.
Hours after the letter was posted on SI.com, Fisher stood in front of dozens of players at a Las Vegas press conference and stressed they were a unified group that has been preparing for the lockout for almost two years.
"At the end of the day, we'll have to negotiate a deal. And the only way we'll get a deal done that's fair is with these guys right here," Fisher said.
"Of course, we'd love to be back to work. We'd love for this lockout to end," he said. "But we've prepared ourselves for what it may bring. So if it ends tomorrow or if it ends a year from now, we're together and we're ready to tackle the issues that we'll face."
The veteran Lakers guard wrote in his letter that meetings held Tuesday in New York were "effective" and pointed his finger at an in-fight between owners as the main disagreement among those present.
"What actually happened in those meetings was discussion, brainstorming and a sharing of options by both sides. The turning point this past Tuesday was not a disagreement between the players and the owners. It was actually a fundamental divide between the owners internally," Fisher wrote.
"They could not agree with each other on specific points of the deal and therefore it caused conflict within the league and its owners."
Fisher and the players talked in Las Vegas while the owners held separate meetings in Dallas.
"At the end of the day we come out of our meeting continuing to be as unified and together as we've been throughout this entire progress," Fisher said.
Fisher said any reports that the players were fractured over the negotiations were false. He said the players who met Thursday had an opportunity to see proposals and came out of the talks in the same place they went in.
"They're here with us, they're supporting us and all of our guys are in this together," Fisher said.
NBA commissioner David Stern also stressed unity after the NBA's Board of Governors met Thursday, denying Fisher's assertion that the owners were a splintered group.
"They expressed their strong support for the committee and the unified nature of their position," Stern said.
Two days earlier, there seemed to be little optimism after the sides met in bigger groups at a New York hotel, trying to hash out a new collective bargaining agreement as the lockout moved further into its third month.
Stern said then that it was still a goal for the season to start on time, while union head Billy Hunter said players were told to prepare for missing half of the season.
Among the stickiest issues is the salary cap. Players want the NBA's system to remain the same, and Fisher believes that more than half of the league's owners are flexible when it comes to idea of a hard cap.
Stern said after the Board of Governors meeting Thursday that owners were basically unified in their preferred position on the salary cap, but that everything was negotiable.
"I don't know what the basis of Derek's belief is but I can tell you having just come out of the meeting that the vast majority of owners are indeed in favor of a hard-cap system," Stern said.
Fisher wrote in his letter that he hoped the owners could work out what he said were differences and come up with a revenue-sharing plan that will protect NBA teams.
He also implored players to ward off a possible decertification effort -- a plan reportedly bubbling up among some of the NBA's more powerful agents. He questioned the motives of the agents because they hadn't contacted him directly.
"I've read yesterday's stories and find the position of these agents interesting," Fisher wrote. "I have made myself available to each and every agent. But not once have I heard from them. If they are so concerned about the direction of the union, then why have they not contacted me?
"Each and every one of them mentioned has been in meetings with me. I've answered their questions, I've been told they support you, their players and our Players Association. So if there is a genuine concern, a suggestion, a question, call me. Email me. Text me."
Fisher knew "without a doubt" that his letter would leak and said he was speaking "with the fullest transparency." He finished it with a call for solidarity among the players.
"I ask each of you to stand with me, stand by me and urge the league and the owners to come together and allow the game of basketball to continue to grow and thrive. We're ready," he wrote.
Stern said the Board of Governors had a "full day" of meetings, during which they ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with referees and heard status reports on the sales of the Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks and a potential new arena in Sacramento.
The commissioner said the board was briefed on the status of negotiations with the players.
The NBA lockout began July 1 after the most recent labor deal between the two sides expired. Though there remains time to get a deal done before the regular season is scheduled to start on November 1, training camps are slated to open October 3 and the first preseason games are scheduled for six days later.
Unlike the labor strife that caused NFL lockout, which long appeared to be solvable, the problems facing the NBA have led observers to warn about a prolonged dispute like the one that canceled the 2004-05 NHL season.
