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
Hubbard Column: Comedy, perhaps, but was that Gumbel’s intention?
One element previously missing from NBA negotiations was introduced last week, and we have Bryant Gumbel to thank for that. At a time when NBA fans were at their most depressed about the potential loss of the season, Gumbel took matters into his own vocal cords and provided a little comic relief. Thanks, Bryant. We needed that. Hard to believe, but some were offended by Gumbel’s suggestion on his HBO show Real Sports that David Stern was like a “plantation overseer.” Come on.
The Shawn Kemp award goes to …
… someone other than Al Harrington. Although we have to give Al some props for trying. Aside from his offspring accomplishments, Kemp is best known for putting on some 50 pounds of extra weight during the 1998-99 lockout. He was never the same player afterward, and his is still a case study on what kinds of collateral damage (David Stern”s phrase from June 30) can happen during a lockout. From Susan Stapleton of HauteLiving.com: “On Saturday, Denver Nuggets player Al Harrington took the
Cuban had idea for eliminating salary cap
That was the word today from union director Billy Hunter in a podcast with Bill Simmons of Grantland.com. Simmons writes: “My takeaway from the hour: Billy seems convinced that his players are absolutely sticking together (that’s his “leverage,” so to speak); he feels like the league is in a much better place than it’s pretending to be; he’s more than happy to work with the more thoughtful owners on ambitious big-picture solutions; he believes the owners’ side has a built-in advantage
Heisler Column: At Long Last, Crunch Time
By Mark Heisler Talk about the matchup we waited our whole lives for … Bryant Gumbel vs. Paul Allen! What’s the chance of them fighting a steel cage death match? Things look that bad — as things figured to at this point with the warring parties already out $330 million … soon to be $660 million when Jefferson Davis, er, David Stern cancels two more weeks. The NBA trotted out Allen, the nation’s No. 23-ranked billionaire, now cautioning prudence after years of $100 million payrolls
Sheridan on Bryant Gumbel’s remarks
If Bryant Gumbel hadn’t used the words “plantation overseer” in his infamous commentary on HBO’s Outside the Lines last week, would he have been making some sort of a valid point? I discussed and debated that question with Rob Calloway on WAOK radio in Atlanta over the weekend. Click here to listen to the interview.
Beasley scores 56 in Durant’s exhibition game
My tweeps were chirping at me in the first quarter about a faulty stream on thebasketballchannel.com, but apparently the bandwidth problem was solved in time to show a pretty decent fourth quarter at Kevin Durant’s exhibition game in Oklahoma City last night, won 176-171 in overtime by Durant’s team. Some stat lines: Michael Beasley, 56 points on 25-for-35 shooting — though he disappeared in the fourth quarter when some defense started to get played, according to ESPN.com’s Royce Young. Chris Paul, 25 assists — including
Sheridan column: Breakdown of financial and system differences
NEW YORK — Have you cooled off yet, guys? The next step in the NBA lockout is likely to be a phone call placed from the league office to the players’ association. It’ll be a courtesy call to inform the union that an announcement is forthcoming that another chunk of games is being canceled. The call could end there, or it could include a kicker: “Feel like sitting down together again?” Let’s face it: At some point, the logical and inevitable thing to
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