NEW YORK — It is Black Friday, and the players are going bargain(ing) hunting at today’s NBA lockout negotiations. If commissioner David Stern is willing mark down a few pieces of merchandise, there will be something under the tree for everyone on Christmas Day. There is a deal to be done today, or later this weekend, if the owners are in a giving mood, but the players had better realize that they are not going to get everything on their wish list.
Lockout update: Meeting set for Friday
NEW YORK — Owners and players will met again Friday, which is 30 days before Christmas. And since commissioner David Stern has said it will take approximately 30 days from the date a handshake agreement is reached until the season can start, Friday is going to be a pivotal day. But with that being said, if a handshake is reached Saturday or Sunday, 29 or 28 days will suffice. A couple of clarifications are in order, based on what I am hearing. _
NBA sides have been meeting secretly; 66 game season eyed
At a certain point, the sides had to start talking again, right? And after two dozen negotiating sessions that played out in public, with both sides issuing their spin in comments to the media afterward (with the exception of sessions mediated by George Cohen), we are now learning that secret meetings have been taking place yesterday and today — presumably in an effort to settle all matters related to the NBA lockout, which would include litigation and collective bargaining matters. Adrian Wojnarowski
Sheridan column: Boies wavers on whether he’ll call NBA
NEW YORK — The next logical step in the illogical NBA lockout is for David Boies to call Jeffrey Mishkin, or for Jeffrey Mishkin to call David Boies. The latter attorney, Boies, who represented Al Gore against George W. Bush in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, now represents NBA players, and Mishkin is the outside counsel for NBA commissioner David Stern and the owners. It would take approximately 2 minutes for their secretaries to put that call together. And after obfuscating and posturing
NBA Lockout Update: This and That
Good morning. There ain’t no news to report, so a little of this and a little of that. We start with Mr. Jimmy Kimmel on NBA-TV’s programming quagmire: Watching that video prompted me to check out what the folks over at NBA.com have lined up for our multimedia needs today, and it turns out the season will start in 26 days with a nice lineup of Friday night games that includes an ESPN doubleheader of Atlanta-Philadelphia and Oklahoma City-San Antonio. At
Memo to Stern: Pick up the phone
NEW YORK — At a certain point, this game of telephone chicken has to end. I made that point yesterday on NBCSportsTalk in the video posted above, and I’ll make it again on Day 141 of the NBA lockout (or “boycott” if we use David Boies’ preferred term.) NBA commissioner David Stern spoke on the phone yesterday with the league’s Board of Governors, and Stern can wake up this morning patting himself on the back over the fact that no details of
Lockout update: David Boies may be bluffing, too
NEW YORK — There’s a new David in town, possibly a worthy adversary of the other David, aka Commissioner Stern. This is a copy of the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court by David Boies, the temporary de-facto leader of what used to be the National Basketball Players Association. In court lingo, it will be called Anthony v. NBA. (Yes, Carmelo is Tom Brady 2.0) In case you missed it, I was at union (trade association?) headquarters in Harlem last night
Boies outlines NBA players’ legal strategy
NEW YORK — That picture shows the man who has been hired to take down David Stern, or at least force a settlement from the NBA commissioner. And David Boies says he’s going to try to do it by using Stern’s own words against him. In a briefing to a small group of NBA writers Tuesday, Boise outlined the strategy he will try to employ in an anti-trust lawsuit filed by NBA players in U.S. District Court in Northern California today. The