NEW YORK — NBA players want one more meeting with commissioner David Stern and the owners. And although they are probably not willing to say “pretty-please,” they are willing to pay for the privilege. Making the surprising declaration that they are prepared to make further financial concessions (goodbye, 51 percent), team representatives from the NBA players union said Tuesday they still want to make a deal, and they still want to make it by tomorrow, as long as it is fair. Union
Hubbard column: It’s not complicated – Michael is simply being Michael
The sports world spent most of two decades witnessing the savage competitiveness that was Michael Jordan and, frankly, not only enjoyed it, but also idolized it. When he was a player and got that nasty, comic book-superhero look in his eyes while staring down a challenger, everyone – with the notable exception of opponents – loved it. That includes, you’ve got to think, all current players. For Jordan, games were combat, a test of wills, and he elevated them to levels that
Lockout prediction: Deal within 36 hours
NEW YORK — My gut feeling: We will have a settlement of the NBA lockout within 36 hours. Why? Because, folks, they are 99 percent of the way there. (You don’t pile all of the kids into the station wagon, tell them you are driving to DisneyWorld and then stop in the outskirts of Orlando and say you are turning around.) The owners are at 50 percent on the revenue split. The players are at 51 — or ” fifty plus one” as
If David Stern tosses crumbs to the players …
… at a true 11th-hour negotiating session Wednesday, then there might be something that the union’s executive committee puts forward for a vote. That’s my take. So phooey on you, Mark Heisler, for calling yourself the last optimist. I had more to say about how I see the endgame possibly playing out in a drive-time interview I did today on “The Mitch Albom Show” on WJR-760 AM in Detroit. Click here to listen to the interview.
Heisler Column: If this is symbolic, which is Beavis and which is Butthead?
Even if the NBA makes a deal today — as I always thought it would in time to play by Dec. 1 — I’m past congratulating anyone for their part in this farce. I’m filing this as written before they do a deal, go to war, or whatever. ___ Now that we know what the lockout is—a symbolic battle, rather than one over dollars, since that has been essentially settled—I have one question for David Stern and his owners and Billy Hunter
Buy This Shoe, Plus Morning Lockout Roundup
NEW YORK — I was supposed to go to a Converse event late last week, but the lockout interceded when the union called a media briefing at its headquarters in Harlem and I had to choose news over shoes. I told Mandy Gutmann (who left her post as a Knicks media relations staff for the greener pastures of Converse) that I would find a way to make up for my absence, and there it is. (I saw more people wearing Chuck Taylors in
Morning-after lockout roundup: NBA union is very, very angry
NEW YORK — Good morning. Hope you got some sleep. I didn’t get much, and I imagine Jeffrey Kessler didn’t either. Kessler, the lead outside counsel for NBA players (he performs the same role for NFL players) was practically foaming at the mouth in the wee hours of the a.m. after David Stern and Derek Fisher had conducted their respective news conferences in the most diplomatic tones they could muster. The moment Fisher left the room, Kessler started venting. Loudly. And he didn’t let
Lockout update: So Close, Yet So Far
NEW YORK — They are closer. Yet the sides in the NBA lockout are still far apart in many, many ways, and the players are especially irate because they believe the owners are trying to force a bad deal down their throats. That was the upshot of Saturday night’s 8 1/2 hour negotiating session, which ended with the owners telling the players they had accepted five of six suggestions made by arbitrator George Cohen and had adopted them into a formal proposal
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