NBA, players make progress toward deal
The NBA and Players Association are pushing wholesale NBA jerseys hard to reach the framework of an agreement to end the league-imposed lockout after moving closer to consensus on several important issues, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Negotiators met for more than 15 hours, finishing past 3 a.m. ET Thursday, and sources said talks centering on the system issues resulted in significant progress on one of the labor fight’s most vexing obstacles: the luxury tax teams would have to pay for going over the salary. Negotiations will resume at 2 p.m. ET Thursday.
“They need [Thursday] to punch it over the end line,” one source briefed on the talks told Y! Sports.
There was a significant effort among the NBA’s owners to push hard to get a deal done with the players over the weekend, sources told Yahoo! Sports. NBA commissioner David Stern wasn’t happy with the implosion of talks that occurred with him home ill last Thursday, and sources said he was more cheap NBA jerseys determined than ever to rally his owners to find some compromises to make a deal with the union.
“I leave these guys alone for a little bit of time,” Stern said, “and all hell breaks loose.”
From front-office executives to player agents, optimism is rapidly rising that there’s significant momentum toward reaching an agreement and saving most, if not all, of the 82-game regular season. Union executive director Billy Hunter said he “assumes” the full schedule could be saved if a deal is reached by “Sunday or Monday.” Stern said the league will work with the union to schedule as many games as possible.
The two sides didn’t discuss the split of revenue – a contentious issue in previous negotiating sessions – instead taking Hunter’s suggestion they “park” the discussion while negotiating system issues. Stern indicated the talks likely won’t return to the split until the league and union have finished with the system. League and union officials will continue to meet in small groups Thursday. Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver and San Antonio Spurs jersey owner Peter Holt will brief the owners’ labor-relations committee before talks resume.
The players would be willing to move closer to a 50-50 split on basketball-related income (BRI) if they can maintain comparable exceptions to the ones they had in the previous labor agreement – and a luxury tax that doesn’t too punitively discourage big-spending teams from exceeding the salary cap, sources said.
