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Phil Jasner: League Backs Off Cap
October 27, 1998
League backs off cap
by Phil Jasner
Daily News Sports Writer
Talk in the NBA is anything but cheap. Not with
$2 billion in revenue anticipated this season.
Not with the players already having lost an
estimated $100 million in salaries for games
canceled because of the ongoing lockout.
But a glimmer of hope emerged late last night in
New York, after 12 representatives of the league
and 20 people from the National Basketball
Players Association met in a marathon session,
attempting to hammer out a new collective
bargaining agreement.
The meeting lasted about nine hours.
"The best thing is, we have some sort of an
agreement on basic principles," said Danny
Schayes, a member of the union's executive
committee.
"Right now, we're talking about a hybrid system.
The first couple of years, it would work one
way, for another couple of years it would work
another way if the first way didn't work. At
least we're finding some common ground."
That would seem to translate to a real attempt
at compromise. Schayes said a system growing out
of yesterday's negotiations would offer the
owners a good idea of the range of their costs,
rather than absolute cost certainty.
"The good news is, at least we're talking about
the same thing," Schayes said. "We're not close
on the specifics, so it depends what you call
progress. There's nothing that would signal any
imminent announcements, but we've agreed to talk
more."
"We need a system that eventually gets to where
there's a set percentage for the players and a
set percentage for the owners," deputy NBA
commissioner Russ Granik said. "I don't think it
has to be a hard cap, and in fact some of the
things we're talking about now are not hard
caps."
Schayes said the league had asked to operate
under a luxury-tax system for the next three
years, with a fallback to a harder salary cap
for the next three years if the costs were
outside the deal's limits. The union, he said,
countered with a tax system for two years and
the fallback system lasting another two.
The sides agreed to talk today about noneconomic
issues, then resume bargaining tomorrow. Union
president Patrick Ewing, Herb Williams, Juwan
Howard, Mitch Richmond, Dikembe Mutombo and Jim
McIlvaine were among the players present
yesterday.
"My gut today was that there would be a deal
this week or we'd be in danger of putting the
whole season in jeopardy," agent Keith Glass
said. "I think the league believes that what
went on in Las Vegas last week was real. The
players said they would not accept a hard salary
cap, so if that's what was being offered, there
would be no reason to meet again."
After the players affirmed their unity Thursday
in Las Vegas, a small group of negotiators from
each side met for more than three hours
Saturday. They reported no progress, but the
talks escalated yesterday.
With the league's board of governors scheduled
to meet today and tomorrow in New York, the
Phoenix Suns' Jerry Colangelo and the Houston
Rockets' Les Alexander were in town and joined
the talks.
Commissioner David Stern and Granik are
scheduled to meet with reporters at the
conclusion of tomorrow's board meetings. They
are expected to cancel at least two more weeks
of games, following the earlier decision to
cancel the first two weeks of the season.
Indications have been that the league would not
agree to play less than a 50-game schedule.
Billy Hunter, the executive director of the
union, had said he would attempt to bring the
entire player population of about 400 to New
York tomorrow. But it was unclear last night
whether that plan would be implemented. More
than 240 players attended Thursday's meeting.
"I believe a lot of people felt the union would
crumble," agent Marc Fleisher said. "I think now
they're concerned -- not panicked -- that it was
beginning to look like it could be a very long
lockout."
The union initially suggested a luxury tax on
any contract worth more than $18 million a year;
the owners countered with a tax on Larry Bird
exception contracts worth more than the league
average, which was about $2.6 million last
season. The Bird exception has been the
mechanism that allows a team to re-sign its free
agent at any price regardless of the team's
relation to the salary cap.
"Billy won't give up the ship, not after what
happened with the players in Las Vegas,"
Fleisher said.
Hunter said the players who attended the Las
Vegas session voted unanimously to never accept
a hard cap. Both sides have introduced widely
differing forms of a luxury tax as a possible
solution to the dispute that has cost the league
games for the first time in its history.
The longer the dispute lasts, the greater chance
that the All-Star Game -- scheduled for Feb. 14
at the First Union Center -- also could be lost.
The city has not hosted an All-Star Game since
1976.
The owners want to impose a ceiling on what a
team can spend on salaries, plus a ceiling on
the percentage that can go to any one player.
The union is fearful that such an agreement
would eliminate the middle class of players and
eventually eliminate guaranteed contracts.
The owners have proposed giving the players a
phased-in 48 percent of revenue in a four-year
deal, and have guaranteed the players $1 billion
plus at least 5 percent raises in each year. The
players received more than 57 percent of revenue
last season.
©1998 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.