Players Reject NBA's Latest Offer

A lost season looms as the players choose to pick a court battle to end the lockout.

The National Basketball League is one step closer to cancelling its entire 2011-12 season after the players' union voted against the league's latest contract offer and began a process to decertify the union. Decertification would free up the players to sue the owners and the NBA to end the lockout, but by the time that's decided, the season will likely be over. The union and the league have yet to be able to come to terms over so-called "basketball related income," which includes money made from tickets, merchandise, television contracts, and more. Right now, the players get 57 per cent of that pie while owners take the other 43 per cent. The league's latest offer would have changed that to a 50-50 split, but the union unanimously rejected that offer. Commissioner David Stern has compared the players' threat to decertify to "nuclear winter," while dollar signs reportedly replaced the eyeballs of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman over the prospect of running the only professional sports league on North American television screens between January and April.