Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
The NBA plans to cancel two more weeks of its regular season, a source told the New York Daily News.
This would be the third time commissioner David Stern has postponed games as the league’s lockout of the players continues. The NBA had previously canceled the preseason and the first two weeks of its regular season which was set to begin on Nov. 1.
According to the Daily News’ source, this latest cancellation would total at least 102 games and run through Nov. 28.
The source told the Daily News that the NBA will announce the latest cancellation of games on Tuesday.
At present, the league’s annual slate of Christmas Day games remain a possibility, however no new talks between the owners and players union are scheduled.
After three days and 30 hours of meetings with a federal mediator, negotiations fell apart last week when union officials said they were told they must commit to a 50-50 split of revenues before owners would agree to discuss the salary cap system.
“We’ve indicated that we’re ready to sit down and negotiate with [the owners] on a minute’s notice,” players’ association executive director Billy Hunter said Monday on ESPN.com’s B.S. Report with Bill Simmons. “We’ve indicated that we’re prepared to negotiate and continue negotiations but for the fact that the owners told us [their latest offer] was take it or leave it and only unless we agree to the 50-50. But we can’t agree to the 50-50 if we don’t have a system in place.”
With more games possibly being canceled and the two sides not speaking, the question is will there be an NBA season. While neither side has said definitively one way or the other, the combatants both seem prepared in the event the season is canceled.
“The competitive issues and the economic issues, certainly we don’t want to lose the season, I don’t think the NHL did either. It ended up happening,” Spurs owner Peter Holt, chairman of the owners’ labor relations committee, said last week. “There are certain things that we feel we must have.”
Hunter told Simmons that while the players are committed to reaching agreement with the NBA to end the lockout they also want a “fair deal” or they are ready to stand firm in labor talks.
“They are principled individuals and I think that they realize the struggle that they are incurring,” he said. “They may be paid at a higher level but it’s the same issue that we see that is endemic right now, not only in our country but around the world — it’s about folks at the top who have the leverage and power who need to impose upon the workers of the world.
“Most of our players when they end playing basketball they are going to be living for another 40 years or so. And so I don’t know how long that money is going to last,” he added. “Even if they made every prudent investment that they could possibly make, I don’t know at what level they are going to be able to live. But I think after a while it just becomes a principle. For a lot of these players that is what it’s about.”
–ESPN
