NBA Team Owners Authorise Player Lockout

National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners have authorised a lockout of the league’s 450 players if a new labour accord isn’t in place when the existing collective bargaining agreement expires tomorrow.

The 30 owners made the decision during almost five hours of meetings at a Dallas hotel yesterday

The owners’ 11-member labor-relations committee can enact the lockout when the labor accord with the National Basketball Players Association ends tomorrow night.

NBA Deputy Commissioner, shop Adam Silver, capsule said: “The owners authorized the labor relations committee to do whatever steps were necessary to effectuate a new collective bargaining agreement and so that committee has the full authority of all 30 teams to act in whatever way they deem appropriate.”

Further talks with the players’ union are scheduled for tomorrow.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said: “I sure would like to see us make a deal. Not making a deal should give everybody apprehension.”

With a work stoppage, the NBA would join the National Football League, which locked out its players in March following the expiration of a labour contract. That dispute has continued for more than three months.

Without an agreement, the league is likely to lock the players out on July 1, creating the third work stoppage in NBA history.

The dispute stems from the disagreement on how to split revenue from a league that made about US$4.3bn last season.