NBA Players Reject Latest Proposal From Owners

(NewsCore) - NBA player representatives have rejected the latest offer placed in front of them by the league's owners.

As many as 43 players converged on New York on Tuesday for a hastily scheduled meeting after NBA commissioner David Stern said the owners' latest offer would be off the table by 5:00pm ET Wednesday.

"Our orders are clear, the current offer that is on the table is not one we are able to accept," union president Derek Fisher said.

Stern announced Sunday the players had until Wednesday to accept a hybrid offer on six key issues included in a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), adding that a refusal to accept the latest pitch would result in a much worse proposal.

But the players -- while expressing their desire to continue the negotiation process -- appeared to call the commissioner's bluff, saying they would not accept a deal they did not feel was in their best interests.

"We're open-minded about potential compromises on our BRI [basketball-related income] number, but there are things in the system that we have to have," National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter said.

Hunter said he would contact Stern on Tuesday evening in the hopes of setting up a new bargaining session as early as Wednesday, and the commissioner later told NBA TV he would take Hunter's call and then consult with the NBA labor relations committee before taking any further action.

Hunter told reporters he was hearing through the "underground" that the NBA would cancel games through Christmas if the two sides did not reach a deal by Wednesday, but Stern laughed off the suggestion.

"I don't know what ground he's talking about or under what ground he's looking, but we have no such plan," said Stern, who previously canceled the first month of the season in two stages as talks continued to break down. "We need 30 days from the end of negotiations."

Hunter also said he did not believe the owners' latest offer will be taken off the table Wednesday as promised, but Stern insisted a new offer was coming.

The current proposal, which was based on a series of recommendations by federal mediator George Cohen, included giving the players between 49-51 percent of the league's revenue. But the players contested that the formula in the proposal would make it nearly impossible for them to receive more than 50.2 percent of BRI, according to the New York Post.

The owners had previously held firm in their demand for a 50-50 split of the revenue. The players, who took in 57 percent of BRI in the previous labor deal, have said they are unwilling to go below 52.5 percent in the next agreement.

The other key element in the latest proposal, which the union also was opposed to, was taking away the ability for luxury tax payers to execute sign-and-trades and free agency, according to the Post.

Tuesday's decision marked the latest in a series of setbacks in an attempt to reach a new CBA, leaving no indication of when the lockout -- now in its fifth month -- might come to an end.