Category: In the News

Still spending Opening Night with my blog brothers – even with no game

Spurs Nation’s attention should have been directed to the ATT Center last night for the Spurs’ season-opening game against Milwaukee last night.

The lockout took care of that, leaving a bunch of us angry and hungry for any kind of contact with the NBA.

My blog brothers over at 48 Minutes of Hell.com made sure that a few us still got together for a few minutes last night. I was honored to participate in a live video chat with Graydon Gordian, Andrew McNeill and Jesse Blanchard for a few minutes on their TV show.

We weren’t treated to Gregg Popovich’s season-opening soliloquoy, or the newest way that chicken was cooked in the Spurs’ media dining hall. But it was good to spend a few minutes with them and talk about lockout-related issues.

Here’s ato their debut. I’m sure the quality of their guests will only improve in the future.

With the lockout stretching on, there’s still some Spurs-related information out there.

  • Trevor Zickgraf of Project Spurs.com imagines how good a healthy Greg Oden in the future.
  • Baxter Holmes of the Los Angeles Times writes about the Spurs being.
  • Nick Gilbert, the son of Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, wondering if his dad’s team after they were swept by the Spurs in 2007, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Schmitt Boyer reports.
  • Vancouver Province columnist Tony Gallagher wonders if some of the rhetoric from Spurs owner Peter Holt during the NBA lockout could.
  • Pounding the Rock.com’s Josh Guyer sifts through the headlines for .
  • In an extensive analysis of the support for David Stern among NBA owners, the New York Times’ Howard Beck and Ken Belson categorize Holt as a .  
  • Alley Oop of Spurs Locker.com (good to see you back) doesn’t believe the once the lockout ends.  
  • Janie Annie of Pounding the Rock.com writes about how the .
  • Jeff Garcia of Project Spurs.com with Phoenix center Marcin Gortat.
  • McNeill and Cleveland blogger John Krolik talk about in a 48 Minutes of Hell podcast. McNeill also wonders if Richard Jefferson is too valuable for the Spurs for the upcoming season to.  
  • Leesha Faulkner and Walt Nett of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal report that Tony Parker has possession of a Shelby Cobra 427 S/C sports car that is. The newspaper reports that the car once belonged to Absolute Fuels owner and CEO Jeffrey David Gunselman, who is suspected of fraudulently creating and selling credits for renewable fuels that were never produced, according to court records.
  • Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post reports in a 1A story today that Benjamin Whetstone Schmidt, the son of Spurs team doctor David Schmidt, was the in his death on Oct. 6 in Afghanistan.
  • Blanchard shares a few images of opening night in a .
  • Nia Long, the mother of former Spur Ime Udoka’s child, tells Ebony Magazine of the joys of (Hat tip: Hello Beautiful.com)
  • Massive former Antonian standout and current Indiana State senior Myles Walker tells Terre Haute (Ind.) Tribune-Star reporter Todd Golden about his .  

NBA deadline on hold as talks go on

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

NEW YORK – Deadline Day became Dialogue Day for the NBA.

A league ultimatum that had threatened to seriously set back negotiations aimed at ending the NBA’s lockout was set aside so talks could resume.

Twelve hours of talks that began Wednesday afternoon produced little in the way of progress, but for now, time will stand still while the talks continue, beginning with another session today.

It will be the 133rd day since the players were locked out on July 1.

“We have sort of stopped the clock,” Commissioner David Stern said after a 12-hour session that ended after 1 in the morning at a midtown Manhattan hotel.

Frozen in time was Stern’s deadline for acceptance of an offer that included a 50-50 split of basketball related income.

Stern’s warning to the union after mediated weekend bargaining sessions ended in failure had been simple: Accept by the 5 p.m. close of business on Wednesday a league’s offer or face a much worse offer in the future.

The post-deadline offer, Stern said, would be re-set to 47 percent of revenue for the players, with a “flex” salary cap the union already has deemed a hard cap. Further, the re-set offer will seek to roll back current contracts.

The threat continues to hang over players’ heads, but until this latest round of talks is declared a failure, Stern won’t wield it.

“It was our understanding going in that at the end of the negotiating session, whether it ends today or it ends tomorrow, that’s when our offer reverts. But we weren’t, in the middle of discussions, going to say, ‘OK we shouldn’t have taken that break. Stop the clock, it’s all over.’

“We’re trying to demonstrate our good faith and I think that the union is trying to demonstrate its good faith.”

On Wednesday, the threat didn’t appear in the negotiating room, according to Billy Hunter, executive director of the National Basketball Players’ Association.

“No, it was not (in the room),” he said. “They had sent us a letter indicating the 47 percent deal would occur if we did not reach accord by 5 p.m. today. Because of the nature of the negotiations and the fact there has been so much give and take they have basically agreed to freeze the deadline.”

Despite all that give and take on Wednesday, neither side said much progress was made.

“Nothing was worked out today,” Stern said. “We’ve agreed to convene here tomorrow at noontime and I would not read into this optimism or pessimism. We just continue to negotiate as we continue to negotiate.”

Hunter said the agreement to meet Thursday was an indication of a positive tenor to the talks.

“There was enough give and take on both sides that it merited our coming back tomorrow,” he said.

The union had asked for Wednesday’s negotiations after a meeting of player representatives from 29 of the 30 NBA teams that ended with solid support of the union’s executive committee and Hunter.

Negotiations Wednesday centered on “system” issues the players insist they must have if they are to agree to a 50-50 split of basketball related income.

Wednesday’s talks involved smaller groups than last weekend’s sessions. Stern, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver and Spurs owner Peter Holt, chairman of the owners’ labor relations committee represented the league, along with league attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube.

Union preside Derek Fisher, union vice-president Mo Evans, Hunter, outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy represented the players.

Would Nash’s arrival make Heat more palatable to NBA’s mainstream?

It seems like a match made in marketing heaven.

Steve Nash may be the most popular player without an NBA title, now that his friend Dirk Nowitzki hoisted the O’Brien Trophy with the Dallas Mavericks last season.

Nash’s window for a championship with the Phoenix Suns is closing rapidly, particularly as tightwad owner Robert Sarver allows the once-competitive franchise to descend into mediocrity.

 It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Nash ask for a trade as soon as the lockout ends as he searches for his elusive championship.

And if he’s really interested in taking that route, at least one NBA superstar who has a similar lack of a title is very, very interested in hooking up with him.

LeBron James took to Twitter today to mention in a bid for their first championship together.