NBA owners, union have last-ditch meeting

A last-ditch effort to preserve a full NBA season was made Sunday night in Manhattan, but it already may be too little, too late.

The league had been trying to get the players to meet over the weekend since last Tuesday, when negotiations for a new collective-bargaining agreement broke off. Commissioner David Stern warned the players that if progress toward a deal wasn't achieved, the league on Monday would cancel the first two weeks of the regular season, which is scheduled to open Nov. 1. The entire preseason already has been scrapped.

Even if progress is achieved on the major issues, there is very little time for the league to complete a new CBA and immediately open training camps in time for a full season. Still, the effort was made.

The meeting, which began at about 6 p.m., included Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, the chairman of the league's Board of Governors, and Spurs owner Peter Holt, chairman of the NBA labor relations committee. Also at the meeting were union executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher and vice president Maurice Evans. The meeting also included counsel from both sides.

The players' union had scheduled a members meeting in Los Angeles Monday. That meeting could have greater importance now.

Consistent meetings during the last two weeks came to a halt after the sides haggled over the split of league revenue, known as Basketball Related Income (or BRI). Players refused to go any lower than 53 percent; the owners sought a 50-50 split. The players had a 57 percent share of the BRI in the previous CBA.

With the regular season in the balance, the league initially attempted to get the union back to the negotiating table during the weekend, but on the condition that the sides negotiate off the 50-50 split offered by the league last Tuesday. The union declined that offer.

League spokesman Tim Frank released a statement on Friday that said the league advised the union it was "unwilling to move above the 50-50 split of revenues that were discussed between the parties on Tuesday, but that we wanted to meet with them to discuss the many remaining open issues."

The sides still had to tackle another major issue in collective bargaining: the salary-cap system. While the league has retreated from its hard-cap stance, there remains a great deal of debate about the restrictions the league wants to impose in a soft-cap system.