Brilliant Cake Sent to NBA Owners/Players Meeting
But the right side has more frosting? |
After the dour disposition he exhibited after last week's meeting, Stern was all smiles Tuesday -- but cautioned reporters not to read anything into it. He described the meeting, about three hours shorter than the sessions typically have run, as "quality time."Whoever came up with that cake idea is a genius. Last season the players' share of basketball-related income was 57%. The players have offered to decrease that their share to 54%. The owners are demanding it go down to 46%. Ironically if they split the difference of their latest offers, it would end up as a simple 50/50 split. So the cake makes a ton of sense. Just agree to the 50/50 split. Players will be making about 13% less than they did previously, which should be enough of a win for the greedy owners. But if you're going to ask them to take a 13% pay cut,eliminate all the talk about a hard cap please. 50/50. Get it done tomorrow.
"When I didn’t smile the last time, I was described as something between dour and surly, so this is my smiling face," Stern said. "And we had a … we’re looking forward to reconvening tomorrow."
Or, maybe it was the cake that I had delivered to the negotiating room (see pic below), which resulted in the requisite laughs on the sidewalk outside the Upper East Side hotel where the bargaining took place.
"Most important," Stern said outside the hotel, "we've saved the cake for breakfast."
Source: Ken Berger's column Fisher: 'Maybe we can put a deal together'