quentinNBA Union Says Lockout Is Inevitable
June 30th 2011 20:31
The National Basketball Association is locking out players, says Billy Hunter. The owners and players have failed to reach a compromise on the collection bargaining agreement. Hunter, the union chief, says the lockout will happen tonight. If the lockout happens tonight, two out of the four major sports in America will be locked out. The NFL is on day 107 in its lockout, and is still working out a deal. Despite a three hour meeting today, the NBA and its players could not close the gap that remains in their positions. Hunter said the union made a “moderate” new financial proposal, but it did not satisfy both sides. “The gap is too great”, Hunter said. He said the two sides will meet again in two to three weeks. The NBA informed everyone that they are making a recommendation to their labor relations committee to start a lockout at midnight. This is what union outside counsel, Jeffrey Kessler, told ESPN's Kelly Naqi.
All league business are placed on hold for now, such as free agency, which is supposed to open on Friday. The last lockout was in the 1998-99 season, where it was a 50 game schedule, the only time the NBA missed games for work stoppage. The sides remained far apart on about every major issues, from salaries to salary caps, and revenues to revenue sharing. The players offered to have their salaries to $500 million dollars over five years, which would target each team to spend $62 millon dollars. The league told player that it would never slip below the $2 billion dollar mark over a 10 year deal. Owners also wanted a reduction in the players' guarantee of 57% of basketball revenue.
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