CBA negotiations expected to resume in the first week of September: NBA Lockout Report
The first official meeting that took place between the NBA owners and players association officials on 1st of August was expected to make some headway or at least define a path for future negotiations. However, the future
of the National Basketball Association got murkier when an angry David Stern launched a verbal tirade against the players in the press conference and announced that the league is filing two lawsuits against the players.
During the meeting earlier this month, the players threatened the league to take the matter in court on the basis of unlawful lockout. Instead, the league used the threat against the union and reached the doors of the court before
them. It was reported that NBA filed lawsuits on 13 NBA players.
At this situation, the president of the players association Billy Hunter expressed his fears that the current scenario will only lead to a complete season wipe-out.
"The litigation tactics of the NBA today are just another example of their bad-faith bargaining and we will seek the complete dismissal of the actions as they are totally without merit."
Hunter stated that the new division of hard-nosed owners in the league are limiting the options of negation to make a settlement.
"The circumstances have changed among [David Stern's] constituency. In the last six or seven years, there is a new group of owners to come in who paid a premium for their franchises, and what they're doing is kind of holding his
feet to the fire." Billy Hunter said.
In the last week, Stern again made ripples when he implied that a scheduled meeting was cancelled because if the players. The union off course refused to buy the idea.
Now according to the latest reports, the representatives of the NBA owners and players’ association will gear up to negotiate early in September. It’s going to be the second official negotiation talk since the lockout started
its life in NBA. Before that, the union is going to host a meeting of executives in New York by the end of August, which might discuss player’s next step for the expected negotiation in September.
From a neutral point of view, it’s about time both the parties show some flexibility in order to take a step towards improvement. Nobody expects the work stoppage to end in one meeting however both the sides need to show some flexibility.
In September, the lockout will complete two months tenure and this a time enough for both the parties to make up their minds. Considering the entire 2011-2012 season is at stake, the negotiation need to get a head start otherwise
the things will only linger on.
Tags: