NBA owners and players meet on labour issue; Fail to make progress – Lockout Update
The NBA owners and players met again on Thursday for talks regarding the labour dispute in New York. The meeting lasted over 5 hours but once again failed to produce any breakthrough. The NB lockout, which began on July 1st,
now looks set to continue into October.
The two sides met before on Wednesday to restart negotiations after a breakdown earlier. The leadership from both sides was not present on Wednesday. They did join in on Thursday. NBA Commissioner David Stern and Deputy Commissioner
Adam Silver represented the owners, alongside San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, while Players’’ Union Executive Director Billy Hunter and President Derek Fisher engaged them as representatives of the NBA players.
The presence of the main leadership from both sides though did not appear to have smoothed matters as the now all too familiar post meeting comments revealed that no positive progress had been achieved.
When Stern was asked whether he thought the start of the season could still be saved, he didn’t really want to talk about it,
"I don't have any response to that. I just don't. I don't know the answer."
One of the main issues in the dispute regards the split of the BRI. In the previous CBA, players got 57 percent of all Basketball Related Income. The owners have pointed to huge losses suffered last season and demanded a bigger
share of that pie.
It has been reported that the players offered to lower their share to around 54 percent, but the owners’ demands are far too steep. NBA Commissioner David Stern reportedly wants the players to drop a complete 11 percent, down to
46 percent in the new CBA. That is 7 percent less than what the players seem willing to offer at the moment.
Los Angeles Lakers man Derek Fisher did not seem too enthusiastic coming out of Thursday’s meeting, but he did show resolve to still get a deal done. Fisher agreed that time was not in their favour right now but he vowed to keep
on trying until a compromise is reached.
"We'll keep working at it until we figure this thing out, but right now there isn't anything to really report or say," Fisher said. "I don't have any answers to any questions, other than we'll keep working until we find some solutions."
Many analysts believe that the league and the players both have left it too late because of their excessive posturing over the last two months. The owners and players have been talking formally regarding a new CBA since even before
last season. After the lockout began they virtually did not talk for two months and that could now come back to haunt them.
Tags: