NBA commissionaire David Stern says plenty will be at risk if progress in not made on the lockout
Even after two successive days of meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, the NBA owners and players association failed to show any sort of progress in a bid to form a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. This has forced NBA commissionaire
David Stern to take a strong stance.
According to sources close to the negotiations, the 69-year-old Stern is planning to threaten both the parties with the cancellation of the 2011-2012 season if some kind of deal is not reached by the end of the weekend.
After Wednesday’s meeting, it did sound like David Stern is threatening to call off a complete NBA season.
"I'm focused on let's get the two committees in and see whether they can either have a season or not have a season, and that's what's at risk this weekend." Stern said.
The senior vice president of NBA, Tim Frank denied that Stern has such extreme intentions but it is almost certain that the cancelation of some regular season games will transpire, if there is no progress till Monday.
Stern however gave no comments when asked whether the NBA owners will show some flexibility in imposing a hard-salary cap.
While refusing to deal with the hypothetical, Stern made it clear that both the players and the owners will have plenty to lose if the deal is not reached this weekend on the new CBA.
“All I'd say to that is that there are enormous consequences at play here on the basis of the weekend. Either we'll make very good progress, and we know what that would mean, we know how good that would be, without putting dates
to it -- or we won't make any progress and then it won't be a question of just starting the season on time, there will be a lot at risk because of the absence of progress." Stern said.
The NBA owners and players association are scheduled to have a meeting on Friday evening and through the weekend. This meeting is being considered as make or break for the timely start of the next NBA season. Last Friday, NBA indefinitely
postponed the training camps and the pre-season games due to the lack of progress, and with the November 1 deadline drawing closer by the day, the start of NBA season is in serious doldrums.
To say that the time is running out for the NBPA and the NBA owners will be an understatement.
Tags: