Manic Monday - The Downbeat - #619

The NBAPA and its player reps will converge on New York today as they discuss the league's most recent proposal and vote on whether to allow the proposal to come to a full vote with all the players.

This could be the season. The players for the most part have stated that they won't accept the deal as constituted and have enough votes to force a decertification vote. While decertification doesn't guarantee a lost season, it almost certainly means that they'll be calling Stern's bluff on the November 15 deadline to accept the deal. What Stern does after that is unknown. It's hard to believe that he would cancel the season so early but he's stated that they're through with negotiating and is demanding a 72-game season. He has to follow through on his threats this time though after missing other deadlines that he's given. That means a worse offer for the players, one that won't get accepted either. If that happens, then this will likely play out in the courts.

On the eve of their meeting, David Stern and Adam Silver took to twitter last night to answer questions from fans, players, and media. It was a calculated move with yet more condescending tone and still not answering questions directly. I'm not sure what impact it will have on today's player meetings, but you can be sure that most players were following along. It was another attempt to speak to the players directly and bypass the union leadership. It's worth noting that the players nor the union have no such recourse when it comes to contacting owners.

In addition, word from Marc Stein this morning is that some players tried to get copies of the proposal from the owners but were denied. Yet the players are supposedly to blame for misinformation from the media and social outlets.

I've been on the players' side during this whole thing yet they have botched things so badly that they deserve whatever deal they end up getting.

Jody Genessy has a great article on Jerry Sloan as the coach helped his step-son raise money for the high school basketball team. This part killed me,

"He's already been missing basketball," Sloan's wife, Tammy, said. "He's been watching the NBA channel, the Hardwood Classics, since there's no basketball to watch. I think he's missing it, honestly."

Do you see what you're doing NBA? You're killing coach Sloan slowly. Hopefully he know about the Jazz classics on KJZZ to get him through this.

KSL also sat down with Sloan and Phil Johnson in another good (and long) interview.

One interesting thing to note from the twitterview with Stern and Silver was this tweet,

.@_andresb Stretch exception only applies to contracts signed under new CBA

So if the Jazz are going to in effect waive someone this season, it will only be by use of the amnesty clause.

via SaltCityHoops, Blue Edwards had a custody battle over a child he fathered while in Vancouver that was made into a Lifetime movie entitled "What Color is Love Love?". Really.

Spoiler alert, Blue lost the custody battle after the Canadian Supreme court ruled that race shouldn't play a factor and stopped visiting and paying child support.

Who would have known Memo could do such a thing?