csprtContainer(); NEW YORK — With the clock ticking toward NBA commissioner David Stern’s open-to-interpretation deadline of “by the close of business on Wednesday,” lockout negotiations resumed this afternoon with only the heavy hitters in the room. Stern, deputy commisioner Adam Silver and San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, chairman of the league’s labor relations committee, were representing the owners along with senior NBA attorneys Dan Rube and Rick Buchanan. Union director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, executive committee members Roger Mason and Mo
Lockout, Day 132: Will we see Day 133? – UPDATE
NEW YORK — Chris Broussard of ESPN is reporting that details are being finalized for a 1 p.m. meeting today. So it appears commissioner David Stern will agree to one more sitdown with the union to try to make a deal before today’s “close of business” deadline for the players to accept or reject the offer the owners put on the table Saturday night. Stern told NBA-TV he would first have to speak to the owners’ Labor Relations Committee before agreeing to another sitdown.
Lockout update: Wednesday is THE day
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Union, willing to give back more money, wants one more meeting
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
Kobe Bryant wants another meeting with owners
Kudos to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports for landing the interview of the day: “As the NBA and Players Association trudge toward a possible doomsday deadline, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant urged owners to meet with the players union before Wednesday and spare the league from “spiraling into a nuclear winter.” “We need for the two sides to get together again before Wednesday, because we’re too close to getting a deal done,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. “We need
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.