NBA talks break down; games in jeopardy
Los Angeles Laker's Kobe Bryant listens during a news conference following NBA labor talks meeting between basketball players and owners. (Oct. 4, 2011) Credit: AP
The NBA season is now officially in jeopardy.
After yet another round of labor negotiations Tuesday ended without progress toward a new collective-bargaining agreement, or plans to meet again, the NBA announced the cancellation of the remainder of the scheduled preseason games. Commissioner David Stern then added that the first two weeks of the regular season would be cut by Monday.
It could be league's first loss of regular-season games as the result of a work stoppage since the 1998-99 season, when a lockout reduced the 82-game schedule to 50 games. Stern estimated the loss of the preseason alone will cost the NBA almost $200 million, with regular-season games costing even more. NBPA executive director Billy Hunter said the players will lose $350 million per month. But the players, he said, are dug in.
"Our guys have indicated a willingness to lose games," said Hunter, who was flanked by the union's executive committee, plus star players Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Amar'e Stoudemire attended the meeting, but left early to catch a flight. "And when they stand up behind us here, that's what they're saying. If they didn't feel that way, we would have done something different."
If they felt differently, a deal could have been made. At least that's what Stern believed when, in a private setting, he asked Hunter if the players would entertain a 50-50 revenue split. Stern said Hunter caucused with the players before returning to Stern to inform him that the offer "would not be acceptable." It was then that talks broke off.
"At that point, it didn't seem to make a lot of sense to continue," Stern said.
The players proposed a 53-47 split of the league revenue (identified as "basketball related income"), which is 4 percent lower than their take in the previous CBA, and Hunter reiterated that was their position. It was also, it should be noted, a position several influential agents insisted to their players, in a letter sent out Monday, the union should not concede.
The owners initially came into the meeting also looking for 53 percent of the revenue, which represents a 10 percent drop for the players from the previous agreement. Stern said the owners had come off other sticking points they initially tried to negotiate into the deal, such as a hard cap system, non-guaranteed contracts and no rollbacks on existing contracts.
So after four hours of negotiations in Manhattan, union president Derek Fisher said it was "not the day to get this done."