NEW YORK: The NBA players union said it broke off talks with the owners Thursday but not before they were presented with a revised offer that includes a shortened 72-game season, starting on December 15.
The owners’ latest proposal comes after 11 hours of negotiating on Thursday between the two sides, who are attempting to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement and put an end to the lockout.
Union president Derek Fisher said the latest revised offer did not address all the key issues that are important to the players.
“Obviously, we would like to keep negotiating and find a way to get a deal done. But right now it’s not that time,” Fisher said.
NBA commissioner David Stern said the owners were prepared to come up with a far harsher deal if the players do not take the offer currently on the table.
“I would not presume to project or predict what the union would do,” Stern said. “I can hope, and my hope is that the events of next week will lead us to a 72-game schedule starting on December 15.”
Stern said the owners were running out of patience.
The latest offer comes after the players and owners met for almost 23 hours over the past two days, going past Stern’s earlier Wednesday deadline for players to accept the league’s proposals.
Executive director of the union Billy Hunter said they would try to bring the player representatives to New York by Monday or Tuesday to determine whether the current offer is acceptable.
The union had nearly all of its executive committee in attendance Thursday, with Fisher and Hunter joined by players Chris Paul, Maurice Evans, Roger Mason, Keyon Dooling, Theo Ratliff, Etan Thomas, Matt Bonner; lawyers Jeffrey Kessler and Ron Klempner, and economist Kevin Murphy.
The owners groups comprised, Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and lawyers Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube.
The league has already wiped out all of the games scheduled in November—a month’s worth of action in a campaign that was to have started November 1.
Stern has said earlier that once the sides reach a handshake deal it would likely take about 30 days to get games on court.
A key issue under discussion remained the division of some $4 billion in annual revenue.
Players received 57 percent of basketball-related income under their previous contract, but have said they would be willing to drop that to 52.5 percent.
Stern said if the latest offer is rejected and there is another bargaining meeting, it would be based on a 53-47 split of revenues in the owners’ favour, a flexible salary cap with a hard ceiling and salary rollbacks.
AFP
