NBA labour talks go well on Thursday, NBA owners and NBPA to meet again on Friday
On Thursday, 27 October, the NBA owners and players met once more to discuss the labour dispute in Manhattan, New York.
Compared to the meeting on Wednesday, which lasted around 15 hours, the talks were shorter but went well according to all parties involved.
Both the NBA owners and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) officials were not keen on divulging many details Wednesday, but they seemed happy to talk after some very rare positivity in the dispute. NBA Commissioner
David Stern said after the talks that he was looking forward to Friday’s session.
He said the sides made some progress today "that will enable us to look forward to tomorrow, where we anticipate there will be some important and additional progress -- or not."
"But, I think (union executive director Billy Hunter) and I share that view, and we're looking forward to seeing whether something good can be made to happen."
The NBA lockout began almost 4 months ago. Since then, the two sides have failed to formulate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), principally because of differences over salary cap structure and split of Basketball Related
Income (BRI).
They met last week under the supervision of a federal mediator, George Cohen, but broke talks off after three days. Salary cap structure and the BRI split were blamed for failure of the talks but the sides have reconvened this
week to try and tackle those issue.
They have left the BRI split alone for the time being, focusing instead on cap structure. Both sides believe if they can get it sorted out, chances for reaching a compromise on the BRI split would increase considerably.
The league wants a salary cap structure that would prohibit larger market teams from spending excessively on player salaries. Owners believe that would provide an equal playing field for all 30 NBA franchises. The NBA players have
accepted that the monopoly of larger market sides needs to be broken, but are concerned severe restrictions in salary structure would scare teams off from spending, in turn effecting player earnings.
However, now it appears that the two sides have found some common ground on the issue of salary structure. Stern, who had been expected to cancel more games after the failed negotiations last week, has now actually talked about
playing a whole season if a CBA is agreed upon by Monday.
NBPA Executive Director Billy Hunter also seemed optimistic after Thursday’s session, saying that the sides were
"within striking distance of a getting a deal".
All eyes are now on Friday’s meeting.
Tags: