NBPA Roberts: 'NBA's cries of poverty won't work this time'

The NBA Players Association won't be hoodwinked into making concessions this time around, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told Adrian Wojnarowksi of Yahoo Sports.

"The NBA's cries of poverty will not work this time," Roberts said. 

The players' union made a number of concessions to end the lockout of 2011. They accepted a sharp reduction in the players' share of basketball related income, and ratified a collective bargaining agreement that included harsher penalties for teams in the luxury tax, which discouraged teams from spending on player payroll.

The concessions were made in part because many owners claimed significant losses. Coupled with a downturn in the U.S. economy, the players eventually caved to settle the dispute.

Next time around, Roberts and the players' union won't accept the same logic.

"It's difficult for me to believe that, especially after looking at the 2011 CBA negotiations and seeing all the money the players don't have now," Roberts said. "There's $1.1 billion that the players would've been otherwise entitled.

"I find it very difficult to appreciate how any owners could suggest they're still losing money. It defies common sense. We know what the franchise values are. I don't have to say '$2 billion' again and again, do I?

"The gate receipts, the media deals. What else do you need to make money? We are not going to re-engage in a process where this happens again. The NBA's cries of poverty will not fly this time."

Given the public posturing by both Roberts and the players she represents, it seems all but certain that yet another labor dispute looms on the horizon in 2017, when the players can opt out of the current CBA.