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NY Times: Sense Of Urgency In Talks
N.Y. Times
October 28, 1998
New Sense of Urgency in N.B.A. Negotiations
By MIKE WISE
EW YORK -- The meetings have not been billed
emergency sessions, but with the National
Basketball Association scheduled to announce the
cancellation of more games Wednesday, negotiations
between owners and players may go a long toward
settling the nearly fourth-month-old labor impasse and
salvaging the season.
Commissioner David Stern and representatives from all
29 teams will meet with Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing
and as many as 200 of their peers Wednesday at a
midtown Manhattan hotel. The meeting represents the
best hope for the two sides to try to work out a
revenue-sharing plan.
With three bargaining sessions in the past four days,
there are clear signs that both sides are beginning to
compromise. As the financial losses mount -- player
losses in salary may reach $200 million if
cancellations are announced Wednesday -- much of the
rhetoric and posturing has begun to subside.
The perception among many players is that the owners
were merely waiting for the players to lose paychecks
before genuinely exploring a deal. With an estimated
200 players standing firm for the moment, the question
now is whether the two sides can agree on numbers in
time to avert losing the season.
The owners have pulled back on their insistence on a
hard salary cap, while the players have offered
alternatives to help the owners bring salaries in line
with the league's revenue growth.
Stern and his deputy commissioner, Russ Granik, have
indicated that an agreement needs to be in hand by
early December to prevent losing the entire season. The
league lost its first two weeks on Oct. 13, the first
time games were canceled in the NBA's 52-year history.
Barring a quick settlement, the rest of the November
schedule -- and probably some December games -- will
most likely be canceled Wednesday.
The union's executive director, Billy Hunter, and
Ewing, its president, along with other players met with
NBA legal representatives Tuesday at a Manhattan law
firm for four hours.
The two sides discussed non-economic issues relating to
player conduct, including discipline and adding
marijuana and performance-enhancing drugs to the list
of banned substances.
Meanwhile, the owners' labor relations committee held
its own meetings and was apprised of developments from
Monday night's marathon bargaining session in New York.
Like two armies massing and moving toward the front,
the two parties fortified their positions Tuesday.
"The good news is we're talking and we seem to be
talking about the same thing," said Danny Schayes, a
member of the union's executive committee. "The most
important economic things are the things we're farthest
away on. But there is some hope."
Schayes was one of 13 players who took part in Monday
night's talks, a session that several participants said
was the most productive since the lockout began July 1.
The key development seemed to be an agreement on an
economic framework that could be used to divide revenue
and could lead to the signing of a new collective
bargaining agreement, a precursor for starting the
season.
If approved, it would entail a hybrid from proposals on
both sides. For the first two years of the deal, a
luxury tax would be employed to bring salaries in line
with revenue growth. The next two years would involve
the league's plan for an escrow fund.
If total revenue devoted to salaries had not dropped to
52 percent, enough of that escrow money would be
returned to the owners to hit the league's targeted
percentages -- 52 percent in the 2000-01 season, 50
percent in 2001-02 and 48 percent in 2002-03.
While the players have said the escrow fund amounts to
a hard salary cap -- which they said they will not
accept -- the compromises being discussed Monday night
would not involve all escrow returned to the owners.
Instead, the sides discussed possibly instituting the
cap-tightening mechanisms the union has offered in its
previous proposals.
There are reservations on both sides over whether the
system would work, but the fact that the owners and
players seem to be closing in on a concept represented
initial hope that the season could begin before next
year.
After the league's board of governors convenes at 8:30
a.m. Tuesday, nearly half the league's 400-plus players
are expected to file into a midtown hotel for their own
meetings. Both sides plan to face off sometime in the
afternoon.
Aside from the executive committee, most players will
observe the talks rather than participating directly in
the bargaining.
Tuesday's meeting on player-conduct issues was the
first time both sides talked at length about issues
other than economics since late last spring.
The players, as concerned as the league about the image
problems of some of their peers, have made several
concessions on behavioral matters. Few specifics were
agreed on, however.
"We talked about a lot of issues, but I can't say we
made a lot of progress," said Jeffrey Mishkin, the
league's chief legal counsel.
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company