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NBA: Both sides have broken off talks, nothing scheduled
By Ken Gimblin October 21, 2011 |
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SACRAMENTO--Both sides of the NBA players and owners have dug in so deep that talks on Friday have been canceled after three days of negotiations gone awry. It looked like a little light shined at the end of the tunnel last Wednesday night but that quickly was dimmed after Thursday's session. On Thursday what the union hoped was progress from Wednesday's negotiations the owner's held a Board of Governor's meeting and came out in Thursday's talk saying the owners were not going to give in any ground to the players regarding the 50-50 revenue sharing. The players in the previous contract had 57% of the revenue but the owners clearly want to cut that share down, down to 50% which the players representative Derek Fisher said was unacceptable when the owners said they weren't moving off the dime on the revenue split. Federal Mediator George Cohen at that point suggested that both sides go onto other discusions regarding the NBA system. That didn't help matters any Jeffery Kessler the Union attorney said that Paul Allen the Portland Trailblazers owner who just joined the talks this week was appointed spokesman for the owners at least on Thursday, "something happened in that board of governors meeting, yesterday (Thursday) we thought we were moving towards a deal. Suddenly, today, they spend very little time negotiating. As soon as we got in there and presented our offer and without caucusing they said, 'we don't have anything else, we can tell you were at 50% and it has to be our way.' said Kessler The players were astounded by what they heard and after waiting for the owners meeting to end at 2PM ET the meeting was short as the owners said it would not change the number to a higher number past 50%, Kessler thought that both sides had made progress on Wednesday now both sides are back to the chalkboard, "we adjourned, we came back with the players, they said we will not agree to anything else unless you agree to 50%, I couldn't believe it. We were told Paul Allen was there to express the views of the owners, but that view was 'our way or the highway' they were carrying out a mandate they were given, this is a sad day for fans, because someone in that board of governors was sent to blow us off, blow the fans off." said Kessler. The Minnesota Timberwolves Kevin Love said that although talks are discouraging he hoped that both sides will return to the table next week as soon as Monday, "It's unfortunate that after 30 hours in front of a federal mediator that we were unable to have any major progress,hopefully we can get back to negotiations and come back to a fair agreement on the significant issues seperating the two parties, potentially more games could be canceled as a result of today (Thursday) it's disheartening to have no clear end in sight .Heading forward we will continue to remain united and wait for a fair deal." said Love Ken Gimblin is covering the NBA lockout for Sportstalk radio |
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