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NEW YORK (AP) — Union chief Billy Hunter said Thursday “it’s
obvious the lockout will happen tonight” after players and owners
failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, potentially
putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy.
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Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday and a final proposal from the
players – which NBA leaders said would have raised average player
salaries to $7 million in the sixth year of the deal – the sides
could not close the enormous gulf that remained in their
positions.
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“The gap is too great,” Hunter said.
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The CBA expires at midnight, after which all league business is
officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would
have opened Friday.
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Commissioner David Stern said “with some sadness” he would
recommend later Thursday to the labor relations committee that the
first lockout since the 1998-99 season be imposed.
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“Needless to say we’re disappointed that this is where we find
ourselves,” Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said.
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The last lockout reduced the 1998-99 season to just a 50-game
schedule, the only time the NBA missed games for a work stoppage.
Hunter said it’s too early to be concerned about that.
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“I hope it doesn’t come down to that,” he said. “Obviously, the
clock is now running with regard to whether or not there will or
will be a loss of games, and so I’m hoping that over the next month
or so that there will be sort of a softening on their side and
maybe we have to soften our position as well.”
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The NBA’s summer league in Las Vegas already has been canceled,
preseason games in Europe were never scheduled, and players might
have to decide if they want to risk playing in this summer’s
Olympic qualifying tournaments without the NBA’s help in securing
insurance in case of injury.
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Training camps usually open the last week of September and the
regular season about a month later.
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“These kinds of things take on a life of their own, and I just
don’t know where their life is going to lead,” Stern
said.
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Hunter said he hopes the two sides will meet again in the next two
weeks.
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The players’ association seems unlikely, at least for now, to
follow the NFLPA’s model by decertifying and taking the battle into
the court system, instead choosing to continue negotiations. Hunter
said last week he felt owners believe the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in St. Louis, which is debating the legality of the NFL’s
lockout, will uphold employers’ rights to impose
lockouts.
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The NBA projected $300 million in losses this season and said it
lost hundreds of millions in every season of this CBA, ratified in
2005. League officials said 22 of the 30 teams would lose
money.
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But owners don’t just want to minimize their losses. They want to
make a profit, along with developing a system in which small-market
teams could compete with the biggest spenders. The Lakers and
Mavericks, who won the last three NBA titles, are annually at the
top of the list of highest payrolls.
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So they took a hard-line stance from the start, with their initial
proposal in 2010 calling for the institution of a hard salary cap
system, along with massive reductions in contract lengths and
elimination in contract guarantees. Though the proposal was
withdrawn after a contentious meeting with players at the 2010
All-Star weekend, the league never moved from its wish list until
recently.
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Hunter said he believed it was hard for the players to ever move
past the start of the process.
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The expected lockout comes exactly one year after one of the NBA’s
most anticipated days in recent years, when LeBron James, Dwyane
Wade and the rest of the celebrated class of 2010 became free
agents. That free agency bonanza kicked off a flurry of moves, with
James, Wade and Chris Bosh teaming in Miami, Amare Stoudemire
heading to New York, and Carlos Boozer moving to
Chicago.
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It got the league started on a season where ratings, ticket and
merchandise sales were up, weakening the owners’ case that the
system was broken beyond repair. But it also demonstrated why they
wanted changes, with Stern saying owners feel pressure to spend as
much as possible to prove their commitment to winning to
fans.
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He agreed the league had a great year, but “not a profitable
one.”
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Stern wouldn’t say when negotiations would resume.
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About 90 percent of NBA players get paid from Nov. 15 through April
30, so they won’t be missing checks for a while. But Stern has
warned that the offers only get worse once a lockout starts, so the
league could try to push through elements of its original proposal
when bargaining resumes. Hunter said, however, that was not
expressed to him Thursday.
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Like with the NFL lockout, NBA players won’t be the only ones
affected. Employees of teams and the league also face a very
uncertain future. Stern admitted all options would be considered,
including furloughs for his employees.
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“The people who stand to have their livings impacted by a shutdown
of our industry are going to have a negative view of both sides,”
Stern said. “I think our fans will tend to have a negative view of
why can’t you guys work this thing out.”
