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Latest Round Of Talks Not Looking Promising
December 2, 1998
Latest round of talks not looking promising
by Phil Jasner
Daily News Sports Writer
You say you've been waiting patiently for the
start of the NBA season? Well, despite the
news that the owners and the locked-out
players union will be returning to the
bargaining table tomorrow morning, it appears
you're going to be waiting even longer, maybe
even until next season.
NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik said
"absolutely not" when asked whether he had
any reason to be hopeful about a quick end to
the labor dispute that has already seen the
first nine weeks of the season wiped off the
books at a loss of about $330 million in
players' salaries.
That was Granik's stance even after Billy
Hunter, the executive director of the
National Basketball Players Association,
initiated a conversation yesterday with
commissioner David Stern that led to the
scheduling of tomorrow's session.
"There's no reason [ to be hopeful ] ,
because we've taken some big steps backward,"
Granik said. "But we'll meet and try again."
Granik said Hunter and Stern agreed that
there would be no preconditions or
deal-killers on the table and that everything
was negotiable. A meeting that had been
scheduled for last Saturday was canceled when
the two sides argued over what had been
agreed to concerning an escrow-and-tax system
and a timing issue on free agency at the Nov.
20 session.
"I don't have any reason to believe the
players are willing to take real measures to
reduce the percentage of basketball-related
income going to salaries," Granik said. "They
want to put lots of little things on the
table that have no impact. They like what
they have, which was 57 percent of revenue
last season, and they'd like to see that go
up if possible. That's their position, and
that's the real problem.
"This isn't about how many concessions each
side has made, it's that we're paying out too
much and we have to get the number down. They
haven't made any proposals that will really
get it down. If they want 57 percent and the
owners want to pay in the low 50s, it's bad."
The players received $1 billion of the $1.74
billion in revenue generated last season. The
league had anticipated raising revenue to
about $2 billion this season.
With the league at least a month away from
resuming, Stern has refrained from mentioning
a drop-dead date after which the balance of
the schedule would be canceled. Stern and
Granik are also wrestling with a decision on
All-Star Weekend, scheduled Feb. 11 to 14 in
Philadelphia. The city has not hosted an
All-Star Game since 1976.
"We're exploring what to do, and we recognize
that the situation is creating a lot of
problems for the city, which we really
regret," Granik said. "The mayor and the city
have been so cooperative, we're looking for
some kind of solution. There obviously has to
be a date by which we have to tell them, but
we're not sure yet what that date will be. It
could be sooner, it could be later."
With the Jam Session, the interactive fan
festival, already canceled, it is believed
that 76ers president Pat Croce would prefer
that the rest of the weekend's events be
canceled so that he could help put together a
gala production at a future date. Next
season's game already has been awarded to the
Golden State Warriors in Oakland, Calif., and
the 2001 game has been all but promised to
the Washington Wizards.
At the same time, the league is holding a
contract for more than 5,000 hotel rooms in
the city for that February weekend.
And while the owners and players continue to
negotiate, a source indicated Dec. 19 as a
possible date for a projected players'
exhibition game in Atlantic City, probably at
Convention Hall. Hamilton, Ontario, has also
been mentioned as a possible site.
In the meantime, former Detroit Pistons star
and union president Isiah Thomas clarified
his position after saying Monday that the
union might have to replace Hunter and
president Patrick Ewing at the bargaining
table in order to strike a deal.
"I thought I was in support of the players,
saying I'm concerned that they're missing
paychecks and that they should be concerned,"
said Thomas, who has also served as general
manager of the Toronto Raptors.
"I stand by my statement that the union has
three choices -- to let the season go by, to
accept a bad deal or to get an infusion of
new blood at the table. The only ones missing
checks are the players."
The majority of players are paid twice a
month, from November through April, and have
missed two checks.
"The unprepared players are the ones who are
getting hurt," Sixers guard Eric Snow said.
"If you paid attention to the threats, you
planned ahead and saved more money than you
ever thought you'd have needed."
The players almost certainly will miss at
least two more checks.
"My loyalties are to the game and the
business of the game, and I'm slightly biased
toward the players," Thomas said. "When I was
president, we knew we could take the league
to a place where it could become a $2 [
billion to ] $3 billion entity. Now, all of a
sudden, they don't want [ the players ] as
partners, and because of that I see two
adversaries and a lack of trust.
"We proved that a partnership could work. We
did it. Now, we're going to blow it all up? .
. . I don't think you're going to have a
season. I hope you have one, but when two
parties are having the type of
miscommunication they seem to be having, the
only ones hurt are the players. I don't think
either side has put its best deal on the
table because they don't trust each other."
©1998 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.