NBA Deadline Comes & Goes with No Deal on Table, Talks to Continue Today
November 10, 2011
The National Basketball Association (NBA) owners and its players’ union will continue talks in New York today after 12 hours of discussions yesterday bore no fruit for a new collective bargaining agreement.
NBA Commissioner David Stern’s Wednesday deadline came and went with no deal on the table but the two sides have decided to pick up where they left off with discussions.
“Nothing was worked out,” Stern told reporters after leaving the Manhattan hotel where talks are taking place. “Right now, we’re not failing and we’re not succeeding.”
The union has rejected a proposal from team owners that offered them 49 percent to 51 percent of basketball-related income. The sides have yet to agree on how to divide revenue, although the union is willing to move closer to a 50:50 split.
Players, who got 57 percent under the contract that expired July 1, are willing to compromise on their demand for 52 percent of basketball-related income in return for concessions on rules governing player movement and salary, union Executive Director Billy Hunter said last night.
“There was enough give and take that warranted our coming back,” Hunter said early this morning after the latest meetings ended, about 11 hours before negotiations are set to resume.
The sides are at a crossroads over how to divide about $4.3 billion of league revenue. Stern has said the 30 teams collectively lost $300 million last season. With each percentage point worth about $40 million, the players would be giving up $280 million a year by dropping to a 50 percent share, the New York Times reported.
Stern told NBA TV yesterday that the season can’t start until 30 days after an agreement is reached. The league has canceled the first month of the regular season, which was scheduled to start Nov. 1.
