Marathon negotiations rekindle hope of a full NBA season - NBA Lockout Update
The NBA owners and players met on Wednesday to resume talks over the ongoing labour dispute. The meeting, held in New York, featured small but key teams from both sides and ran for over 15 hours. Both the players and owners refused to divulge details afterwards, but sources familiar with the process have said that progress was “concrete but slow”. However, there have been rumours that NBA believes a full NBA season is still a possibility.
This was the first meeting between the two sides since talks broke off last Thursday. The NBA owners and National Basketball Players Association had undergone three days of talks last week with mediation by George Cohen, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Cohen though was unable to help the sides to come to an agreement over the major issues after progress was made elsewhere.
After Cohen gave up, it was widely expected that NBA Commissioner David Stern would cancel more NBA games shortly, but that didn’t happen.
Infact, in an effort to iron out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement the two sides have decided to resume talks once more.
Both sides have shown some flexibility in coming to the table once again, as the NBA owners had said they will not enter talks if the players didn’t agree to a 50-50 split of Basketball Related Income.
The players didn’t agree, but talks have resumed anyway, which can only be a good sign. Sources within the negotiations though have been very cautious in their disclosures so far, largely because of the many failed talks during the current NBA lockout.
It has been reported though that a large portion of the time in Wednesday’s session was devoted to the salary cap structure. The salary cap, labelled a “blood issue” by NBPA executive director Billy Hunter, has turned into the main sticking point alongside the BRI split.
The owners want to enforce a hard cap by inflicting a punitive luxury tax on any team that crosses the threshold for player salary. The NBPA naturally doesn’t want that, but progress could be made if the “cap”, upper limit, and the “floor”, lower limit, were both to be raised.
Last season, the threshold was around $58 million but many NBA teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, spent way more on player salaries. The Sacramento Kings spent the least amount at $44 million, just a little more than the floor value of $43.5.
The BRI was largely left alone on Wednesday as the two sides try and tackle one issue at a time. When it does come under discussion, one of the two sides would have to make significant concessions to the other in order to get a deal done. Currently, the owners are holding out for a 50-50 while the players refuse to go below 52.5 percent.
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