By Chris Sheridan
NEW YORK — David Stern has left the building. But he might be back before the night is over.
After seven hours of talks Wednesday, Stern and owner Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics left the hotel where collective bargaining talks are being held and headed to a nearby hotel, where the league’s Board of Governors is holding its annual fall meeting.
Both men needed to attend a briefing by Grousbeck to the league’s Planning Committee regarding proposed changes to the revenue sharing system.
The talks continued in Stern’s absence, with deputy commissioner Adam Silver acting in his role as lead negotiator, along with San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the Labor Relations committee.
As of 6 p.m. EDT, the sides had been meeting for eight hours Wednesday after enduring a 16-hour session that began at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning and lasted until 2 a.m.
For those keeping score at home, that is 24 hours of bargaining within a 32-hour timeframe.
Arbitrator George Cohen has asked both sides to observe a gag order, and neither side has spoken publicly about what has transpired in all those hours of meetings.
There were various sourced reports out there this morning stating that only minimal progress was made in the marathon session, but without denigrating their accuracy, I advise you to take them with a grain of salt. In a major negotiation such as this one, the sides always take baby steps before they make the simultaneous great leap toward the middle. Having a mediator there helps facilitate that great leap.
Talks resumed at 10 a.m. after yesterday’s session lasted more than twice as long as any previous meeting, and Stern’s Grinch Deadline has now passed without any update on how the commish feels in his gut about the chances of everyone watching the big tripleheader on Dec. 25.
All of the NBA owners, and in some cases an ownership representative (e.g. team president Larry Miller represents Portland instead of Paul Allen), are in town for the Board of Governors meeting. The only owner who attended Tuesday’s negotiating session but was absent Wednesday was Jerry Buss of the Lakers.
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Keep up the good work Chris. You are the the most up to date source out there. I like you glass half full attitide.
I really hope this isn’t just more grandstanding for PR purposes. They’ve discusses little stupid stuff for days before and avoided coming down from their ridiculous demands.
And Cohen’s worked for 16 days with the NFL folks without that working.
Still waiting for that *one* thing that tells me that the league isn’t sticking to their predetermined bad faith bargaining lockout script.
I’d bet that after this, Stern goes on another media tour talking about how “close” everything was and how he thought they had a deal and how it’s sooooo sad that the players won’t give him everything he wants and they might not be able to have a season. And he’ll say that regardless of what actually happened.
But that’s if I were a betting man.
Thanks for all the hard work on this Chris. At this point I am relying on you. Berger seems to be doing pretty well. The guys at Yahoo lost me weeks ago. For some reason I am getting the feeling that this time its for real. Should I be getting excited?
I love the mediator’s technique. Wear both sides down, fatigue sets in, then the sides make concessions just to get out of the room. Its human nature and incredibly effective.
I don’t know if you should or shouldn’t be getting excited. However, meeting for three days is a great thing, in my eyes. If they are, in fact, making moves, then I think that everything will come together.
Are the Maloofs there too? Im a sacramento fan and i know the NBA has been doing a lot of their decision making for them. Do they have a voice in this or are they being told to just go with the flow?