Tracy McGrady: Onus on NBA owners in labor negotiations

The NBA's players and owners met during All-Star weekend in Los Angeles, and the tone was cordial afterwards. However, McGrady believes the public perception about the owners wanting an absolute, hard salary cap with no exceptions is false.

"The proposal that they have out here for us, it's really bull," McGrady said. "Some of the owners, (Lakers owner) Jerry Buss, the big-market owners, they don't want a scale-down."

"They're (big-market teams) not really losing money. I understand Milwaukee, Minnesota, they're losing money," McGrady said. "But that doesn't have anything to do with us — don't lowball us."

"You're the owner, you're the boss," McGrady said. "You come at us with a proposal with what we're worth, either you give that to us or you don't. It's up to you."

McGrady, like many players, has a problem with the NBA trying to take away what they've gained. The owners want a scale-back of $800 million, cutting salaries approximately by one-third. They also want to take away guaranteed contracts and trim the players' share of revenue, currently 57 percent.

"We're gonna have to give up something to gain a little bit," McGrady said. "It's definitely not gonna be the way it is, I understand that.

"But it can't sway that much into the owners' favor where we're losing out big time."

McGrady was a youngster during the last lockout, which resulted in a 50-game season in 1999. Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Charles Oakley were major voices in the room then. As an older player, he feels it's important to make sure his generation doesn't take a step back.

"Those guys were on the way out, but they made sure they set an agreement for us to carry on," McGrady said. "I find myself being in that same position now, with Kobe (Bryant), and Kevin (Garnett), and Tim Duncan to do that for the young guys coming up now."

"All the money that we generate, and when I say 'we,' I say the players, we should be able to divide this money where both sides should be happy," he said. "It's too much money out here."