[moximusParticipant]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/33289/union-makes-big-move-without-polling-members

"Rockets guard Kevin Martin(notes), by text on Monday morning, said he didn’t care to represented that way: "I think it’s fair for every player to have a vote, because we’re all grown men and its time for the players to control their career decisions, and not one player per team. If it comes down to a final decision, you got to be fair." He added that other players he had talked to may or may not have voted for the deal the NBA had on the table, but "most feel like we’re entitled to a vote!"

 

[uknationParticipant]

Here’s a idea, COME TO THE MEETINGS AND DON’T JUST SHOW UP AT THE LAST MEETING!! I don;t want to hear crying from the players who were no where to be found during the whole round of meetings then complain at the last one because the vote didn’t go the way they wanted to. The deal was bad for them and if he would have been to the meetings or read the whole deal he would realize that, sounds like someone didn’t make a nest egg

[omphalosParticipant]

I think Martin probably thought like many players that the union would present at least one deal for voting before decertifying. Hard to blame him for not being involved. Still can’t believe it wasn’t even a vote. I know the Magic at least said they’d accept the deal.

[JoeWolf1]

 I would imagine that there are quite a few players who just want to play basketball.  I’m sure it’s frustrating for those who have no or very little control over their season and main income being cancelled.  

[TyroberParticipant]

 Its really hard to believe they EVERY teams representative voted no. There was a lot of talk that the players MIGHT take the deal, but then not a single one of the 30 guys voted for it? I think if they let every NBA person vote then a deal would have gotten done. Isn’t that how it should be?

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

This is silly… The players DID vote… They voted through their team representatives. That’s the whole point of "team representatives", right? Because majority of union members don’t want to bother with union business (just like every union in the world).

So they appoint a guy from every team who educates himself about the process, goes to all the meetings, knows where they are in the negotiating process and where they can get to, and provides a first-step vet of all contract proposals. If it gets past the reps who are very educated about what’s going on, then it goes to the union at large.

This vote went 30-0… Complaining that it didn’t go to the wider electorate is silly at best and disingenuous at worst. Kevin Martin et. al are welcome to run for his team representative next time around, but to jump in at the last minute and suddenly start marking noise is again, disingenuous. If he really cared he would have been in it from the start, not jumping in at the end to second guess the guys who have been there all along

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 The official vote could easily have been 30 to 0. It would have gone down like this: Okay, guys what should we do? Talking, some folks for taking the deal most guys for rejecting. Informal vote, rejecting deal wins 23 to 7. Okay, guys it would look better if we were unified. Let’s do the formal vote and hopefully you guys who know you are going to lose anyway will change your vote. Formal vote: result 30 to 0. Result, players look much more unified.

Player wide vote would presumably been harder to control and would have given more information to owners especially if it was anywhere near to a close vote. Now with a 30 to 0 vote out there, the negotiators can continue to tell the owners that their deal isn’t even close to acceptable. 

[Andrew1984Participant]

The United States of America is a representative democracy, not a republic. The 535 individuals who make up congress are the ones voting on bills and legislation every day. We appoint them based on our votes. It’s not rocket science.

[apb540Participant]

The NBA is not the US Government. I thought every player in the L was supposed to vote on the new deal. Guess not, but that is unquestionably how it should work. Who is to say that these greedy fing agents didn’t drop a few dollars in the "undecided" team reps pockets? Or give them some guarantees if they voted ‘no’? This is the type of stuff that happens when you have a representative democracy, whether you want to believe it or not. 

[uknationParticipant]

The rep’s from each team went to the players of their team, They got a majority if not unanimous vote to vote no then they went to Hunter and Fisher and told them their team voted no. And that’s how its done

[Soulrebel15Participant]

Martin would have voted yes to any deal the NBPA put in front of him, he’s been wanting to start the season for a long time now. This is not the first or second time he has had divisive comments towards dfish and the union. I was looking for the links couldn’t find it.

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