According to a lot of the “Insiders” at ESPN and some of the guys at Fox Sports and NBC Sports, apparently the NBA Lockout will be ending sooner rather than later. I’m not sure I’m ready to believe them yet, but all signs are starting to point in the right direction.
For example, it was reported today by The Associated Press that NBA owners and players were planning to meet tonight after meeting for about 15 hours yesterday. If that is true it would be the longest back-to-back negotiation period since the NBA Lockout began. As of right now it was the second-longest bargaining session since the lockout began July 1.
Reports are filtering out that if a deal is reached by Sunday that an 82-game season would be feasible. Okay, fine. But what are the chances, right?
Perhaps higher than I originally thought. Both sides say some progress was made to one of the biggest areas of concern: the salary cap. Sides started to see – remotely – eye-to-eye.
Keep in mind, though, it isn’t perfect. They didn’t discuss revenue sharing which might be an even bigger obstacle. So big that the owners gave the players an ultimatum two weeks ago, saying, if they didn’t agree to a 50-50 split of revenue that the salary cap system wouldn’t even be on the negotiating table.
Talks broke down a week ago when players said owners insisted they agree to a 50-50 split of revenues as a condition to further discuss the salary cap system.
The first two weeks of the season have already been canceled and the remainder of the November schedule is in jeopardy.
Leave a Reply