NEW YORK — The NBA lockout could be settled by tonight. Or, talks could drag into the wee hours of Thursday morning and then resume after the sides get a few hours of sleep, setting up Friday as settlement day.
Or, the whole thing could blow up again as it did last Thursday.
All we know for sure is that owners and players have agreed to meet again today in another attempt at ending the NBA lockout. They are apart by a mere $100 million per season on the revenue split, and they still have numerous system issues to resolve, as detailed here a couple days ago.
If they split the differences and walk out together holding their noses but also holding hands, we could have NBA basketball by the end of November, which in theory would allow for a full 82-game schedule to be played if the end of the regular season is moved back two weeks to the end of April.
If an agreement is reached, a whole new schedule will be drawn up.
From Howard Beck of the New York Times: “When the N.B.A. canceled the first 100 games of the season this month, it immediately released its 29 arenas from any obligations for those dates. For now, the arenas are still bound to honor the printed schedule from Nov. 15 and beyond. There are two notable exceptions. A Lakers game at Staples Center against the Toronto Raptors, scheduled for Dec. 13, has been dropped in favor of a Jay-Z and Kanye West concert, The Orange County Register reported last week. The change was made with the N.B.A.’s approval and with assurances that the Lakers-Raptors game could be accommodated on another night. The league clarified in a statement that the change was not an indication that December games had been canceled, but rather that the printed schedule was defunct. “With the cancellation of the first two weeks of the season, the N.B.A. schedule would have to be reworked and certain dates — including Dec. 13 for a Lakers game at Staples Center — would not be part of any revised schedule,” said the statement, which was published by The Register. A Bulls game against the San Antonio Spurs, scheduled for Nov. 30 at United Center, has also been bumped for the Jay-Z tour. So far, no other arenas have received permission to release N.B.A. dates beyond Nov. 14.”
Nuf said. It’s time to play hoops. With the average career of a player — 4.5 yrs I think I read — missing an entire season would impose a real hardship on the NBA players that make the exciting game that pro basketball is as opposed to college ball which bores me.
Dick Vitale is a jerk who shouts cliches when he is interviewed or even worse when he calls a game.
In addition, his favorite coaches can do no wrong: coach k, roy williams, dean smith and a few others. None of his boys can compare to the late John Wooden, the greatest college basketball coach ever.
Pro ball is the best; pro football can’t compare. The pro basketball players are much better atheletes.
Lies, damned lies and statistics.
Like paulpressey25 said, there’s reforms that need to be put in place for the NBA to have a system that the fans can feel good about. If they have to cancel the season so my team isn’t left holding the bag in any number of situations where the current system hoses you, I’m all for it.
There’s no way in hell the small market owners are going to agree to a system that they’ve got no chance of competing in. I don’t care what the rumors are. In fact, the more rumors I hear the less likely I think a deal is.
Chris, you keep referring to the sides only being $100 million dollars apart. I think that type of characterization is somewhat myopic and assumes that only the current CBA system is the system that can work here.
The NFL takes in $9 billion in annual revenue. MLB is $7.2 billion. The NBA $4.1 billion.
Let’s assume the league and the players agree on needed system reforms such as:
a) A franchise tag so small and mid markets can keep their star ala Chris Bosh or LBJ
b) A true hard cap or system changes to the luxury tax that force teams like the Lakers or Celtics to jettison one of their big four (ala a Rondo or Odom) thus getting talent more evenly disbursed around the league
c) Limits on contracts to save the owners and players from themselves so we cut down on the Eddy Curry, Rad-man and Marvin Williams contracts. (this is a big problem despite what Billy Hunter claimed on Simmons podcast yesterday)
All those could have the potential to allow the NBA to put a better overall product out and grow that revenue pie to $5 billion (or more) a year. Assume it would grow $1 billion more due to system changes over the last four years of a seven year deal. Then we are talking $4 billion at stake and not $100 million.
I’d like the owners and players to solve these problems above. And have no problem missing a season to make it happen.
Does that mean the players agreed to the 50/50 split since the owners said they wouldn’t meet until that was agreed upon? I still don’t think we’ll be seeing basketball anytime soon, but at least they’re meeting. Both sides are too stubborn and the leadership too poor to get a deal.