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If canceling opening night and the rest of the NBA calendar for Novemberfailed to prove how serious David Stern is about saving his owners money,there #8217;s this: The commissioner reportedly fined Miami Heat honcho Micky Arison acool half-million for a tweet suggesting he wasn #8217;t one of the owners willing tosacrifice games to save money.In response to someone who labeled the parties involv 2011 mock draft ed in the lockout #8220;greedy #8230; pigs, #8221; Arison tweeted, #8220;Honestly u r barking at the wrongowner. #8221;That #8217;s a lot more per letter than anyone has ever paid on #8220;Wheel ofFortune. #8221; And speaking of game shows, the closest thing to a competitioninvolving an NBA player anywhere on TV came Tuesday when New Orleans Hornetsstar Chris Paul(notes) showed up with his rela 2011 mock draft tives in tow for an episode of #8220;FamilyFeud. #8221; It was a poor substitute for watching the Dallas Mavericks raise lastseason #8217;s championship banner into the rafters before taking on the ChicagoBulls, one of three games originally on the schedule. On the bright side, RobinPaul demonstrated where her son gets some of his fire from. #8220;We all are competitive, #8221; she said. #8220 2011 mock draft ;Very, very, very. #8221;The same could be said about both sides in the lockout, though at this latejuncture they seem just as interested in cannibalizing their own as the otherside. Stern #8217;s levy on Arison marked the third time he #8217;s lightened an owner #8217;spocket for talking out of school about the lockout #8212;Charlotte #8217;s Michael Jordanand Washington #8217;s Ted Leonsis had a 2011 mock draft lready contributed $100,000 each to leaguecoffers #8212;but the extra-heavy hit might reflect more than the commissioner #8217;sgrowing impatience with rule breakers. Though Arison later endorsed the league #8217;sparty line about the tweet being taken out of context, it #8217;s clear that his realsin was exposing the owners #8217; less-than-unified stance.Arison paid plenty to bring LeBron James( 2011 mock draft notes) and Chris Bosh(notes) to Miami and madeplenty in return, not just for his franchise, but everywhere the Heat playedlast season. Even if the league #8217;s claim that 22 teams are losing money iscorrect, successful teams such as the Heat, Knicks, Lakers and Bulls can #8217;t bethrilled with the prospect of losing an entire season of profits to help thepoorer franchises squeeze a more favorab 2011 mock draft le deal from the players. But desperateas the fine made Stern look in his bid to hold ownership together, he still hasa much easier task at the moment than his counterparts at the union.The 400-plus members of the players association are being tugged indifferent directions by executive director Billy Hunter and president DerekFisher(notes). They staked out different positions on the central questi 2011 mock draft on in thenegotiations #8212;what percentage of basketball revenues the players will settlefor #8212;and the campaigning behind the scenes has grown uglier by the day. Fisherhas been accused of secretly negotiating a deal with Stern to get the players toagree to a 50-50 split in exchange for a cushy job with the league down theroad. The rumors grew so loud he was forced to respond to the players in 2011 mock draft anemail, saying, #8220;There have been no side agreements, no side negotiations oranything close. #8221;For his part, Hunter has been adamant about the players keeping 52 percent #8212;a drop from the 57 percent they got in the last agreement #8212;which would stilltransfer more than $1 billion back to the owners in any new deal. He walked outof a bargaining meeting last week to dramatize his th 2011 mock draft reat the players won #8217;tconsider a penny less, but the players #8217; weakening position suggests it waslittle more than grandstanding. At this point, most insiders and likely even theplayers themselves know the final deal will get made at 50-50 or not at all.Hunter #8217;s intransigence has led to speculation that he #8217;s taking a hard line toimpress players and hang onto his job as much a 2011 mock draft s he #8217;s worried about theirs. Ifthe result is a bad deal #8212;and whenever it #8217;s finalized, it likely will favor theowners #8212;at the very least it gives him an alibi.There #8217;s a growing sense that the players would vote to take the deal at50-50, since the only other option is to walk away, decertify the union, andtake their fight to the courts. That would effectively wipe out the 2011 mock draft season,which has also led some players to question why the union didn #8217;t exercise thatoption over the summer, when some leverage might have made a difference.Instead, it #8217;s the owners doing most of the squeezing. Players will lose $350million because of the canceled games this month, and the threat of sacrificinganother round of games, likely followed by the owners putting an even worse 2011 mock draft dealon the table, should have the desired effect.Stern holds most of the cards, and all he has to do is hold the ownerstogether for a little longer. Buying that loyalty doesn #8217;t always come cheap, butas even Arison would likely concede whenever the deal gets done, it #8217;s rarely abad investment.Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write tohim at jlitke(at)ap. 2011 mock draft org. Follow him at http://Twitter.com/JimLitke. Fantasy Basketball '11 registration is open. Sign up today! And follow Yahoo! Sports' NBA coverage on Twitter. Updated 52 seconds ago 2011 mock draft
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