It looks like the latest attempt to get an NBA season going has collapsed. I can’t say I’m surprised. When the owners start out with the position that the previous agreement with the players, which gave them 57% of basketball revenue (I think that leaves out TV money), was way too much and should be brought down to 50%, is it any wonder the players balked? Particularly when the next offer was going to reduce the players’ share to 47%?

Stern had told the players that if they did not accept the latest owners’ proposal, that their next offer would be rolled back to 47 percent of the pie for the players.

“There were some owners, not the majority, who felt our offer had gone too far in favor of the players,” Stern said. “But I was confident I could use my powers of persuasion to navigate through to an approval if the union said yes.

So the hardliners among the owners have won, there will more than likely be no season, and the players will have to live on savings or what they can earn playing basketball in overseas leagues. I shed no tears for the DuWayne Wades and Kobe Bryants of the NBA; they’ll survive quite well, thank you. But the restaurant and bar businesses around NBA arenas, the arena staffs, and the teams’ and NBA’s back-office personnel will probably see their sales and jobs disappear.

I’ll bet my bottom dollar that every one of the owners is a Republican; it’s the same negotiating strategy the party uses against Obama. “Screw the people. We want more.” One-percenters, every one.