Nothing about that post title makes me happy in any way whatsoever.
The moment the talks fell apart - TrueHoop Blog - ESPN
When they convened, instead of the union's head, Hunter, or its negotiating committee of Maurice Evans, Matt Bonner, Roger Mason, Theo Ratliff, Etan Thomas and Chris Paul, representing the players were Fisher, Kessler and three superstars who had been to very few of the meetings at all: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant. A bad sign: Pierce was still wearing his backpack. The players had two pieces of news that shocked the league: 50/50 was not good enough. And there was nothing further to discuss.
It is important to note that there is some question about the validity of this story, but I suppose it wouldn't shock me and it would explain a little why the talks broke off so suddenly and confusingly last week. Another important note: If these events did happen, it was the Union telling them to do it. I'm not sure we can put any of the blame directly on Pierce and Garnett.
Still, Bill Simmons has a more tongue in cheek version of the events.
Bill Simmons Avoids a Few Subjects Before Making His Week 6 NFL Picks - Grantland
During one of the single biggest meetings (last week, on Tuesday), Hunter had Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and Garnett (combined years spent in college: three) negotiate directly with Stern in some sort of misguided "Look how resolved we are, you’re not gonna intimidate us!" ploy that backfired so badly that one of their teams’ owners was summoned into the meeting specifically to calm his player down and undo some of the damage. (I’ll let you guess the player. It’s not hard.) And this helped the situation … how? And we thought this was going to work … why?
That's lovely. There's more at the link above there if that isn't enough snark for you.
For any more on this mess, feel free to read CelticsTown's and Red's Army's take on the events. Frankly I'm too disgusted to digest it or analyze it. Sorry.