NBA In-House staff and NBAPA to meet for the first time after lockout: NBA Update
According to league sources the first meeting between the in-house staff members of the National Basketball Association and NBA Players Association will take place on this Friday afternoon in Manhattan.
The main objective of setting up this meeting is to hook up the two sides again and discuss the schedule of upcoming talks between the two. Therefore, this meeting will not feature Commissioner David Stern, NBAPA executive director
Billy Hunter, the owners or the players.
Both owners and players are standing firm over their resolutions and to survive the lockout, the two parties have started to make moves. Just after two weeks of the lockout, some of the owners have already started laying off their
employees in order to cut their operating costs.
On the hand, players union have made the arrangements to set new gyms across the country, so the NBA players can do their workouts, in the absence of the franchise facilities. Besides this players have the option to take their
talents across the sea and few have already signed the pact with foreign teams.
This act of the players has also been endorsed by the players association. In addition to that, they have also planned to take legal action against the governing bodies of basketball, if they try to limit players from participating
with the international teams.
The players are even ready to sacrifice the upcoming season, if the owners do not show any flexibility. This has put owners under immense pressure and as the next NBA season draws nearer, it will increase and they will have to
sort the lockout issue quickly.
This will be the first time that the two sides are going to meet after the league imposed the lockout. Although, upcoming meeting does not possess any significant value, but it will definitely clear hurdles in the negotiating process.
The league faced its first and only other lockout back in 1998 and because of that labour strike, half of the season was lost. The ticket sales, TV ratings and merchandise sale remained low as the league failed to attract the fans.
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