Talks Between NBA, Players' Union Collapse--Maybe the NBA will go away!!

Yahoo/AP ^ | 5/18/05 | CHRIS SHERIDAN, AP Basketball Writer

[misterrob]

NEW YORK - Labor talks between the NBA and the players' union broke off Wednesday, increasing the chance of a lockout starting in the offseason.

In a statement, the NBA accused the union of backtracking on several items that the sides had agreed upon. The collective bargaining agreement expires June 30.

"Since we are at a loss as to how we can possibly reach a new deal that is in any way consistent with the principal terms that we have been discussing for many months, there are no further meetings scheduled at this time," deputy commissioner Russ Granik said.

The union did not immediately respond.

If no new agreement is reached, a lockout could begin as early as July 1 — three days after the draft.

The sides had been publicly optimistic over the prospects for reaching a new deal until last Friday, when commissioner David Stern downgraded his outlook to "hopeful." That came just hours after two union attorneys gave a verbal outline of the union's new offer and, according to the league, changed its position on several key issues.

"They've taken major steps backward on all the key elements," Granik said in a telephone interview. "We still have more than six weeks until July 1, so I don't want to predict what will or won't happen, but based on way things have gone here it's hard to see where an agreement will be reached any time soon."

A lockout beginning July 1 would force the cancelation of summer leagues and offseason conditioning programs at team facilities. Training camps are scheduled to open in early October.

The league and union went through an acrimonious seven-month lockout in 1998 and 1999 before agreeing to the current seven-year agreement.

With very few exceptions, the same attorneys that negotiated the old agreement are working on the new one.

In its statement, the league indicated a belief that player agents had pressured union director Billy Hunter to back off some of the concessions he had agreed to in previous negotiating sessions since mid-February.

"At the conclusion of a bargaining session on Sunday, April 17, we thought we were very close to a deal, with only a few items remaining to be compromised," Granik said. "On April 19, a day after the players association met with a group of player agents, we were informed that the players association could no longer agree to a previously committed five-year rule on length of contracts.

"Then, last week, after promising a written proposal to form the basis of a new agreement, the union instead advised us orally that it needed to backtrack on several other essential terms that had already been resolved."

The league claims the union changed its position on the length of long-term contracts (current rules allow a maximum length of seven years), the size of annual raises in long-term contracts (current rules limit those increases to 12.5 percent annually for players who re-sign with their teams; 10 percent for players changing teams as free agents), and changes to the escrow and luxury tax systems designed to limit salary growth and penalize the highest-spending teams.

Granik also told the AP that the union had changed its stance on a proposed change to the age limit. He did not give specifics.

Stern is seeking to have the minimum age for playing in the NBA raised to 20 (current rules mandate a U.S. player's high school class must have graduated before he can become draft eligible, while foreign-born players must turn 18 before the draft). Hunter has said he is philosophically opposed to raising the minimum age, though he said he'd agree to a change if the league offered something substantial in return.

The league said it had offered to increase each team's salary cap by raising the percentage upon which that calculation is based. Currently, the cap is computed by taking 48 percent of leaguewide revenues and dividing that figure by the number of teams, 30.

Granik said the league had offered to raise that percentage to 51.

Hunter, in Washington to testify before a congressional committee investigating steroid use in professional sports, could not immediately be reached.

The first sign that talks might be breaking down came when the league canceled plans for a bargaining session between a large group of owners and players that was to have taken place Tuesday. Granik said Thursday's statement was issued to help explain the cancelation of that session.

"We felt we had to tell people what was really happening. It's not like it serves a beneficial purpose," Granik said. "I would prefer we not have to air this, but people were asking reasonable questions and we owed them a responsible answer."

[Semper Paratus]

I've been a Celtics fan back before Havlicek stole the ball but the antics of the present team in the playoff series with Indiana was beyond the pale.

[BIGZ]

You can't have a Union without a Company but you can have a company without a Union.

[Muscadine]

This would be good first step toward cleaning up the USA.

[vollmond]

They just want to keep my Wizards from winning the Championship next year. I know this, because they stopped hockey to keep the Caps from winning the Stanley Cup. Something about clear signs of the Apocalypse, I guess.

[Dog Gone]

In Houston's case, it was voted in by City Council. No taxpayer vote unless you want to make it one step removed.

[jimboster]

The fact the NBA exists saves a couple of hundred lives a year.

[concordKIWI]

life can go on without them

[rdb3]

In Houston's case, it was voted in by City Council. No taxpayer vote unless you want to make it one step removed.

The American Airlines Center, home of the Mavericks and Stars, was voted in with a tax on hotels and rental cars. I actually voted against it. Mark Cuban and Tom Hicks can write a check for a new arena if they wanted to. Former mayor Ron Kirk campaigned for it before he left office in southern Dallas County by promising that it would create jobs. Reunion Arena isn't used for anything really anymore, and the people down there didn't understand that this would not create anything, just move some jobs one mile north.

It passed.

My father voted against the measures for Jacob's Field, Gund Arena, and Cleveland Browns Stadium. They all passed, too. In fact, former mayor Michael White of Cleveland championed a tax measure that would have given Art Modell a brand new stadium to convince him to keep the Browns in Cleveland. The measure passed. Modell still moved to Baltimore.

What can I say?

[Tacis]

A close friend who is deeply involved in negotiations tells me that the main barrier to progress is the diversity program and it's implementation!

Why do these guys have a union when the major problem is the greedy bastard of an agent that ecah one has?

[Dan from Michigan]

No! I don't want the Pistons to follow the Red Wings. :(

[PeteB570]

What's the NBA?

[R.W.Ratikal]

Even if the NBA went away, who would notice? Basketball is so boring it makes test patterns look exciting.

[SengirV]

That's when I stopped. Constant traveling, and the totally biased penalty calling based on players names. Two sets of rules - one for big names, and one for no names totally turned me off.

[Enterprise]

Well, I might make an exception,

[Dog Gone]

I guess I prefer that this labor dispute be resolved. Basketball does generate revenue and the government does collect its share of taxes from it.

If it shuts down, the government will come looking elsewhere for the revenue, and that might mean me.

I haven't been a big fan in recent years and I resent subsidizing megamillionaires who own these franchises. It's just not right. But that's a different issue from the labor negotiation and potential lockout problem.

[GnL]

Hey, be nice. He does have a family to feed, you know.

[RichInOC]

If WNBA players looked like that, the NBA could go bankrupt and nobody would notice, or even care.

[L98Fiero]

"Even if the NBA went away, who would notice? Basketball is so boring it makes test patterns look exciting."

I'll take your word for it. I have never watched a whole basketball game nor do I intend to start.

[Dick Vomer]

NBA cancels season..... who cares?

It'll just give me more time for ...... hockey.

[Faraday]

Great! A thread where people who don't like the NBA can whine about a labor negotiation and tax issues. I don't much care about the money and contracts--I figure that's between the employer and the employee. But, IMO, of course, NBA basketball has no peer in the world of sports-even the NFL. The second round of the play-offs has been a great display of talent, strategy, and stamina. The conference finals should also be terrific. My hope is for a Phoenix/Detroit finals. That would be a classic match-up.

Oh, and I promise not to comment on any threads that raise contract negotiations involving the ballet.