NBA Training camps become the latest causality of the lockout
The announcement for the cancellation of NBA training camps is set to come on Friday, various sources have confirmed. The announcement will follow another disappointing negotiation session held between NBA owners and players on
Thursday in New York.
The training camps were scheduled for October 3, but many people had expected them to be cancelled long before Thursday’s meeting. Most players have been anticipating this and had been training on their own for quite a while, trying
to stay in shape as they have been locked out of team gyms.
Many NBA players are currently in Las Vegas participating in a league designed to keep them ready; some have even already have arranged team training sessions and more will definitely follow.
Apart from the training camps, the pre-season exhibition games will also be written off with the announcement. The NBA and players are still far apart over a new CBA and now the threat to the start of the season looks more real
than ever.
It was around the same time of year in the last lockout when the training camps were cancelled, on September 24th. Due to that lockout, the start of the NBA season was also delayed and many games were lost.
This season could now follow the same route. Experts believe that even after a deal is reached in principle, 2 weeks are bound to be consumed ironing out minor differences and framing the new CBA. After that, 2 to 3 weeks would
be required for a shortened training camp and the free agency etc.
That means that a deal has to be reached at least a month before the scheduled start of the NBA season in order to avoid a postponement. The NBA season starts on November 1 according to the schedule issued by the league, which
means a deal, in principle, has to be reached before September is out.
The chances of that look fragile at present. After the meeting in New York NBPA President Derek Fisher said the matter was pretty much out of his hands.
"I don't have control of that part of it, that would be more of a commissioner Stern, Adam Silver question in terms of logistics of starting the season on time," Fisher said. "I'm not going to try and make a guess on that one.
The calendar's obviously not our friend, but we're not going to give up on the process because of the time."
NBA Commissioner David Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver were equally non –committal coming out of the meeting, which does not bode well for the start of the season.
Tags: