Category: In the News

Thunder tickets hot in OKC

Even the NBA lockout can’t kill excitement and anticipation in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder already are having a banner year at the box office without playing a game.

Oklahoma City fans have responded to the Thunder by , according to the Oklahoman.

Only the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston, Chicago and New York have sold all of their season tickets heading into the 2011-12 season.

The Thunder’s trip to the Western Conference Finals last season obviously has stoked hoop excitement in the Sooner State.

It says something about the strength of small-market franchises, although it never hurts to have entertaining star players like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to help market your product.

And it’s proving that Oklahoma fans have a deeper interest in sports than another Oklahoma football blowout or Mike Gundy’s latest rantings at Oklahoma State.

Hunter tells players to prepare to miss half a season

So much for that optimism that the players and owners were getting closer to a settlement that would end the lockout.

After Tuesday’s meetings with owners, NBPA executive director Billy Hunter advised players to prepare to miss at least half the upcoming season.

NBPA president Derek Fisher was just as bleak in his assessment.

“We can’t come out of here thinking that training camps and preseason are going to start on time at this point,” Fisher after the meeting.

NBA commissioner David Stern said it was a day without much progress. The biggest obstacle continues to be the players’ resistance to a hard cap.

The next step for the owners will be their board of governors meeting Thursday in Dallas. Expect some kind of announcement at that time where training camp and preseason games will be postponed.

As expected, there seems to be a division of opinion between owners on the need for a hard cap. The challenge of getting all of them to sign off on a deal might be as hard for Stern to pull off as dealing with the players.

And after reports of Tuesday’s meeting, it doesn’t appear that will be very easy, either.

Owners, players schedule meeting with small groups

At least the NBA players and owners still are talking about trying to start the season on time.

After hopes were buoyed and then rudely dashed last week about a possible settlement last week, an impasse appears to be in place. Hardline owners like Phoenix’s Robert Sarver and Cleveland’s Dan Gilbert appear determined to fight for a hard salary cap at the expense of starting the season on schedule.

The NBPA has shown no interest in even considering that, leading to an abrupt breakdown that led most observers to expect training camps and the preseason would be postponed.

But there appears to be at least a glimmer of new hope. Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reports this morning that his sources tell him that small groups of players and owners will meet later this week.

An agreement will depend on both sides giving. The players want the owners to give up their hope of a hard cap — a way they can be protected from themselves in terms of unwise contracts. And owners will likely be adamant that players give up a couple of more percentage points of “basketball related income.”

The players had 57 percent of the basketball related income in the last contract. They have come down to 53 percent in current negotiations. In order to get the owners off their demand for a hard cap, it make take a couple of more points.

It still appears extremely doubtful that we’ll see the Spurs and New Orleans in the preseason opener Oct. 9 at the ATT Center.

The Nov. 2 season opener against Milwaukee might be a different story. But there has to be movement on both sides to get there, and last week’s deadlock at the negotiations wasn’t a good sign.