Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem convinced NBA season will be saved – Basketball News
Miami Heat veteran Udonis Haslem is optimistic that the lockout will end in time to save the NBA season 2011-2012. Many NBA analysts have predicted that a season is unlikely given the gulf between the NBA players and owners, but
Haslem believes otherwise.
The Miami Heat forward has been around for quite a while and says the way he sees it, there can only be one outcome of the lockout; a timely agreement over a new CBA. Although a lot of time has already been wasted, the league and
players were at the negotiating table for more than a year before the lockout began and only met twice in the first two months since July 1st, the Heat man believes it can still be done.
Negotiations have picked up this month. The National Basketball Players Association and the NBA met twice last week on consecutive days, and plan to meet again on Tuesday. Haslem believes both sides have shown enough intent to
suggest they will reach a positive outcome soon enough,
"Both sides want to get a deal done. So that's a good thing," Haslem said. "At least both sides want to get a deal done. And I feel comfortable, confident that we will."
Analysts are placing some extra importance on next week and Haslem agrees. Although no details of the last two meetings were disclosed, their close proximity, length and scheduling of another one for Tuesday after such a long hiatus
previously, is being interpreted as a good sign.
"It could be a big week," Haslem said. "Compared to how much progress we've made in the past to now, this is great progress. We haven't really been able to have a conversation. There's been a lot of yelling, stuff going on. The
fact that we've made some progress right now is a positive."
Haslem will likely be made aware of the goings on in those meetings on Thursday, when the NBPA intends to brief players in Las Vegas. On the same day the owners will be meeting in Dallas. It could well be that important decisions
are made in the two meetings.
The media and the NBA fans could certainly use some good news, or some hope that things are moving in the right directions. Each passing day draws a shadow over the NBA season for 2011-2012. The NBA has already released a schedule
for next season, with the training camps beginning in October.
October might be too much of an ask, from the NBA owners and players to come to an agreement. The labour dispute has a notorious history, the last time the league went into lockout a lot of games were lost. It is seems fair to
say that the training camps are already doomed; it remains to be seen whether the season will meet the same fate.
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