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Rex Chapman knows a little bit about the operation after a lengthy career as a player and front-office executive around the NBA.
That experience provided him some insight about the crux areas of disagreement between players and owners in the lockout in :
“League owners possess much resolve,” Chapman tweeted. “They’ve vowed athlete-payback 4ever. Branded into memory are their yrs of daily P.E. dodgeball beatings.”
There might be more truth to that analysis than most might believe.
By BRIAN MAHONEY
Associated Press
NEW YORK — NBA owners and players called it an early night Thursday, with both pointing toward Friday as a decisive day for big moves to end the 119-day lockout.
Or not.
After two days of talks about the salary cap system, they will turn their attention back to the division of revenues, which derailed the talks last week.
This time, Commissioner David Stern said the talks had produced enough familiarity and trust “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 sides again said there was some minor progress on the system issues after about 7½ hours of talks. They decided to wrap it up and get some rest following a marathon 15-hour session Wednesday, and with union economist Kevin Murphy unavailable Thursday to discuss finances.
Hunter said he thought the sides were “within striking distance of a getting a deal” on the system, but there’s still no indication either side is ready to make the big move necessary to settling the BRI split.
Owners have insisted they’re not going beyond 50-50, which means the sides are still about $100 million apart annually, based on last season’s revenues. Players have proposed reducing their guarantee from 57 percent down to 52.5, but they’re unlikely to go much further without some concessions on the system issues.
Asked when the significant move would happen, Hunter noticed Stern sitting in the back of his press conference and said to ask the commissioner.
“Tomorrow!” Stern yelled out.
“There are no guarantees that we’ll get it done, but we’re going to give it one heck of a shot tomorrow,” Stern said a few minutes later in his press conference. “I think that Billy and the union’s negotiators feel the same way. I know that ours do.”
If they don’t, Stern will have to decide whether to add more cancellations to the two weeks that have already been lost.
A full season might be difficult even with a deal this week. It takes roughly 30 days from agreement to games being played, so it’s uncertain if there’s still time for any basketball in November even before examining arena availability. But 82 games would be a boost for the players, meaning they wouldn’t miss the paycheck that seemed lost when the first two weeks were scrapped.
It was widely expected Stern would announce further cancellations this week after talks broke down a week ago. Instead, the sides were in communication the next day, staffs met Monday, and they were back at the bargaining table Wednesday, acting on Hunter’s recommendation to “park” the revenue split and focus first on the system issues.
Players want a system that looks a lot like the old one, where teams have the ability to exceed the salary cap and where contracts and their raises are guaranteed. Owners are seeking changes that they believe would create more competitive balance by removing the big market teams’ ability to spend freely beyond the cap.
They have attempted to do that by increasing the taxes teams would have to pay for exceeding the tax level. Players argue the taxes are too punitive and would scare teams from spending, thereby creating a hard cap.
“Our position hasn’t changed much,” union president Derek Fisher of the Lakers said. “We’re just trying to make sure that players have an opportunity to have a market for themselves and for their services, the same way we’re trying to meet the league and our teams on all 30 teams being competitive.”
Players have said the issues of the system and split are largely tied together, though Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver have said they believe they are separate.
The big question is whether owners will insist on having both.
“I think we’re within reach and within striking distance of getting a deal,” Hunter said. “It’s just a question of how receptive the NBA is and whether or not they want to do a deal.”
The sides have seemed close before, only for the talks to break down. It was the system issues earlier this month, followed by the split last week after three days of mediation.
They are hoping a deal can be completed by early next week, with the union believing if so there would still be enough time to reschedule the canceled games. But they’ve now arrived at what might be the toughest part, because it always seemed these talks would come back to money.
“We’re working at it,” Fisher said. “It’s a tough process and as we move through and try to close the gap in as many places as we can, it gets tougher towards the end.”
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Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: twitter.com/Briancmahoney
There’s a simple way for Spurs fans to know how to feel after what transpired in a hotel meeting room in midtown Manhattan early Thursday evening: Turn back the calendar to May 13, 2004.
Remember the elation you felt when Tim Duncan nailed one of the toughest shots of his career, a jumper over Shaquille O’Neal that gave the Spurs a 73-72 lead with four-tenths of a second left in Game 5 of a Western Conference semifinal series at ATT Center?
Will you ever forget the punched-in-the-gut feeling you felt when the Lakers’ Derek Fisher’s 18-footer hit nothing but net, turning a certain Spurs victory into a numbing loss.
How ironic was it that on Thursday it was Fisher, president of the National Basketball Players Association, on the receiving end of a numbing shot from the owners, including the Spurs’ Peter Holt?
Just when momentum that had seemed to build towards the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement had raised hope for an end to the lockout, all the goodwill blew up when the owners made an offer that union executive Billy Hunter called an ultimatum.
The take-it-or-leave-it position that soured everything, according to Hunter: Accept a 50-50 split of revenue if you even want to talk about the system by which your 50 percent will be distributed.
The goodwill that had seemed to prevail during marathon talks under the guidance of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service chief George Cohen evaporated in a series of charges and counter-charges in a pair of post-blowup press conferences.
NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver and Holt went first, contending the players didn’t budge far enough from their prior position on revenue split.
This time, the union spoke second, getting the last words. Said Fisher: “I want to make it clear: You guys were lied to earlier.”
Hunter was more pointed, naming names, good and bad.
Good: James Dolan, Mark Cuban, Mickey Arison and Jerry Buss, big market owners he said wanted to make a deal.
Bad: Mostly Dan Gilbert.
Hunter said Gilbert, the Cavs owner who behaved like a spoiled brat after LeBron James decided to take his talents to South Beach last summer, wanted his trust. Agree to a 50-50 split, a giveback of roughly $300 million next season, and we’ll make sure there will be a system you can live with.
Oh, sure.
That Hunter would have revealed this after two days of gag orders issued by Cohen spoke volumes about the nastiness of the emotions, so raw they need to be numbed.
How numb will you feel without an entire NBA season? Because that’s where this dispute between billionaires and millionaires is headed.
The scariest comment was Silver lauding the National Hockey League’s collective bargaining agreement for being “so successful from a competitive standpoint with their flex-cap system that has a hard, absolute cap at the top of the band.”
The NHL got that deal the NBA’s small-market owners covet by locking out their players for the entire 2004-05 season.
Anyone for a Rampage game?
mikemonroe@express-news.net