1998 lockout key player talks 2011

The man behind a star-filled exhibition that some believe might have influenced negotiations in the NBA’s previous labor war in 1998 thinks the league’s players could have done more to force the issue in these 2011 talks.

David Falk — a Washington-based sports agent who was instrumental in organizing a showcase exhibition game during the 1998 lockout — told FOXSports.com on Thursday that players would be wise to show the owners that they have a "meaningful alternative" to playing in the NBA.

Back during the NBA's 1998 lockout, while league and union officials haggled, players joined together and tried to take matters into their own hands with a made-for-TV (though not network) exhibition game.

There was no Michael Jordan. But there was Anthony Mason in a fur coat and Shawn Kemp wearing something even more noticeable: several extra pounds. Many of the tickets for the exhibition were given away, and the TV audience was limited because it was broadcast on a premium channel.

Yet “The Game on Showtime” that took place Dec. 19, 1998, in Atlantic City did accomplish at least part of its goal during the NBA's previous lockout.

“The game was simply my attempt and the players’ attempt to create an activity to show the league there were other ways they could play ball and make money,” said David Falk, who represented Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller at the time.

No similar undertakings have been made — at least to the scale of the “Showtime” game — during the NBA's 2011 lockout, and there has been no mention of a breakaway league, something Falk and other top agents voiced as an option during the previous work stoppage.