David Stern has sent a letter to players' union director Billy Hunter outlining what the owners' new NBA lockout proposal will entail if players don't accept the league's current deal, reports Howard Beck of the New York Times. The letter includes a threat to include rollbacks on existing player salaries in a new "reset" proposal. The owners had previously pushed that concept, one that was quite obviously rejected without prejudice by players.
The rollback threat doesn't peg a certain number, though.
In addition, the N.B.A. would roll back existing contracts "in proportion to system changes in order to ensure sufficient market for free agents."
That could mean adjusting the same amount that the revenue split is moving -- from 57 to 47 percent. Previous incarnations of the rollback push called for decreases in committed salary that started at 7.5 percent for 2011-12.
Of course, this push by the league would simply be another proposal, one that the union would surely negotiate back in their direction. It is, for all practical purposes, toothless outside of its existence as a fear-mongering threat.