By Chris Sheridan
NEW YORK — Earlier, this post listed the two biggest questions of the day in the NBA lockout talks:
How much energy is left after a 16-hour bargaining session that ended after 2 a.m. this morning? Will David Stern be flexible with the Board of Governors’ schedule if a deal is within reach?
We got an answer to the second one when the league announced that a 2 p.m. meeting had been postponed until this evening to allow bargaining talks to continue. And if it can be postponed once, it can presumably be postponed again.
There were various sourced reports out there this morning stating that minimal progress was made in the marathon session, but 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, as the sides do with George Cohen presiding, theoretically 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. Larry Miller represents Portland instead of Paul Allen), are in town for the Board of Governors meeting.
And already, today’s Board schedule had been disrupted.
At 10 a.m., Peter Holt of the San Antonio Spurs was supposed to brief the other owners on the status of labor talks. The 2 p.m. meeting was to be chaired by Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics to update the planning committee on the owners’ new revenue sharing plan.
Another committee meeting is scheduled for late afternoon, and the full Board meeting had been slated to begin at 7 p.m. EDT tonight, continuing on Thursday morning.
Here is a snippet from the latest dispatch by the AP’s Brian Mahoney, who also seems to indicate on his Twitter feed that Stern was somewhat smiley and chipper upon his arrival.
“With the sides unable to make any real headway in recent weeks on the two main issues that divide them, they welcomed the presence of Cohen, who also spent 16 days trying to resolve the NFL’s labor dispute in February and March. … Although the fact that talks didn’t break off was good news, one person with knowledge of the process said not to presume there was any serious progress. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of Cohen’s request. Players believe owners’ attempts to make the luxury tax more punitive and limit the use of spending exceptions will effectively create a hard salary cap, which they say they will refuse to accept.”
We’re all waiting and hoping for a deal so that we can get our NBA fix. However, it’s unlikely there’s going to be a deal this week for the following reasons:
1) It’s not the 11th hour yet as far as canceling the season is concerned.
2) Hunter in Fisher still have to show resolve because of pressure from stars and agents to hold firm in the hopes that the owners are bluffing.
3) All 30 owners are in New York.
This gives the players the opportunity to force hawk owners and dove owners to confront each other over making a deal now or not. The owners are already changing their meeting schedules in favor of continued mediation. Will some owners say, Hey ,get in their and make the deal now.
The players are hoping the owners will convince each other it’s time to let go of the hard line demands and make a deal. But it is unlikely the players have put enough $ on the table to satisfy owners.
On the other hand, if the union accepts the owner’s offer, then the owners can vote very quickly to ratify, while it will take perhaps days for the union reps to get the players assembled for a vote. That would put the owners in position to say they are in agreement on a deal and that it’s all in the hands of the players.
Not likely to happen.
Most likely, we will be in the same position next week.
Nobody is talking outside the room, that’s good. Anybody who is sharing information outside the room is suspect since leaking information is destructive to gaining mutal trust and a deal. They need to get this settled before the $ Armageddon occurs and cities (already in tax trouble) begin to default on payments for civic facilities created for the NBA (and other) entertainment.
Optimism fading… Tell me when it’s over.
I want to not care, but I do, so I keep refreshing twitter over and over.
I’ll be pleasantly surprised if anything gets resolved today. It just doesn’t seem like there’s enough time with all of these owner meetings scheduled for today/Thursday.
I basically ignore everything or any story that uses the phrase “our sources told us” or “we have heard from sources” Even ignore those stories that throw in the word “reliable” before sources.
I prefer to get it straight from the horse’s mouth either first hand or through a quote and a link.