Union Attorney Calls Change a ‘Deal Killer’

NBA players will never accept a major change in free agency signing rules that the owners are insisting upon, Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney for the players’ union, said Sunday.

The proposed rule would force teams who sign another team’s free agent to give up the right to re-sign their own players under the Larry Bird exception.

For example, if the Phoenix Suns signed Scottie Pippen, they’d forfeit the right to exceed the salary cap to re-sign Antonio McDyess, Hot Rod Williams, Dennis Scott, George McCloud, Clifford Robinson and Rex Chapman.

Or in the case of the Detroit Pistons, if they signed free agents Christian Laettner or Matt Geiger, they’d lose the right to go over the cap to re-sign Jerry Stackhouse.

“It’s a deal-killer that has been buried in their proposal for a long time, and they know we’d never do a deal that included it,” said Kessler, the lead outside counsel for the union. “They said it’s something they really wanted, but it’s a false issue. We’ll never accept it and we’re not making any concessions not to accept it.”

The proposed change to the so-called “timing rules” was adamantly opposed by many of the 120 or so players who took part in a union conference call over the weekend. It is one of many significant issues that remain unresolved in collective bargaining talks.

Spokesmen for the league and union said they did not know if talks would resume today, but both sides expected a resumption by Wednesday at the latest.

Progress was made in a nearly 10-hour session Friday. Owners moved off their demand for a 50-50 split, and players dropped their insistence upon 60%. The owners were somewhere around 52 1/2% and the players were near 58%.

The percentage number is crucial because if it were exceeded, an escrow tax would be collected from players’ paychecks and some or all of the money would be distributed to the owners.

Both sides say they want to curtail spending so that the escrow tax would not be triggered, but the owners believe salary growth will continue to outpace revenue growth unless major changes, including the timing rules, are made to the old system.

The union claims its other concessions--a longer rookie scale, a slowing of cap growth, a luxury tax--will slow the growth of salaries enough to avoid implementing the escrow tax.

Owners also are asking for an absolute maximum salary, while the union wants a luxury tax on the highest salaries.

Under the owners’ proposal, players with one to six years experience could sign for no more than 25% of the cap (about $8 million next season), players with seven to nine years could get 30% and players with 10 years or more could get 35%.