Can anything be learned from '99 lockout?

The NBA and the players were back at the negotiating table Saturday afternoon in Manhattan, with both sides believed to be holding firm.

Bobcats owner Michael Jordan, who is the marquee name among a faction of hard-line owners of small-market teams, was in attendance. Knicks guard Chauncey Billups, one of the most respected veteran players in the league, made his first appearance at the talks at the request of the union's executive committee, mainly vice president Mo Evans.

A week ago, there was a sense of compromise before union executive director Billy Hunter walked out of a Nov. 28 meeting when the NBA re-introduced its concept of a 50-50 split of league revenue. Hunter, who has offered a 52.5-47.5 split, said he could not take the 50-50 concept back to the players.

But with the fear of more games lost -- the November schedule already is gone and December soon could be lost if a deal isn't reached within the next 10 days -- should Hunter bring the 50-50 plan to his constituents for a secret ballot vote? There is a strong belief within the union that the majority of players are so anxious to get back to playing that any proposal would pass.

And if there is anything to be learned from history, the 1998-99 lockout ended when Hunter was pushed to bring a deal he was against to a vote in time to save a 50-game season.

"It's all very similar,'' said Steve Kauffman, who was a player agent back then and now mostly represents coaches and team executives.

As that lockout creeped toward January, commissioner David Stern set a Jan. 7 deadline to have a deal before the entire season would be lost. Kauffman and other agents worked together to create a groundswell of demand for Hunter to bring the league's most recent offer to a vote. A deal was reached Jan. 6, one day before Stern's deadline.

At the time, the reaction was that the union lost those negotiations in a landslide, but history proved otherwise. Players still found themselves earning large salaries that eventually brought the owners to where we are today, with what deputy commissioner Adam Silver calls "a broken system.''

Coincidentally, agents again are working in concert to help the players and push Hunter, but not with the same motivation as Kauffman and his group. Agents such as Arn Tellem, Dan Fegan, Leon Rose and others have pushed decertification. The group reportedly organized a few conference calls last week to educate players on the topic, but also to discuss all of their options going forward, including what it would mean to take a proposal the NBA is pushing right now.

"Is it the best possible deal? Maybe not,'' Kauffman said. "But you have to look at it at this point in history . . . This is a terrible time to negotiate . . . Everyone in the country has suffered.''