Owners cap proposal called hard by union

Talk of a potential lockout for the NBA was tempered by a significant move by the league in collective bargaining Tuesday in Manhattan. The NBA's latest counterproposal, which followed a proposal from the union earlier in the day, is a salary-cap system based on the same principles as the NHL's "flex" system.

Commissioner David Stern called it "a very significant offer to the players in order to avoid a work stoppage."

The union, however, called it a hard cap system, something that remains a non-starter.

"While it obviously demonstrates some good faith on their part," union executive director Billy Hunter said, "there's still a huge gap from where they are to where we are."

Both sides pointed to this meeting, which was again held at the Omni Berkshire Hotel in Manhattan, as a critical session in the effort to avoid a lockout. The current collective-bargaining agreement expires June 30.

The meeting, which included several players and seven of the 11 owners on the league's labor relations committee, including Knicks owner James Dolan, began around 11 a.m. The union opened with a proposal and the sides separated to caucus. The league returned to the negotiating table with this new proposal.

The talks ended around 2:45 p.m. and the union promised to answer the league's latest proposal -- the 10th such proposal made since this process began more than a year ago -- in a meeting scheduled for Friday. The union will meet with all of its player representatives Thursday.

"We want to go back, crunch some numbers, look at the system and then we'll respond on Friday," Hunter said.

And the clock continues to tick. The NBA has scheduled a Board of Governors meeting for Tuesday in Dallas, where, if a deal, or progress toward one, hasn't been achieved, it is expected the owners will vote to lock out the players.

"I don't want to talk lockout now because there appears to be some interest, more interest than previously demonstrated, on their part to want to get a deal," Hunter said. "At least they made some movement today. We're going to come back and we're going to present them with something Friday in response to what they gave us today."

Hunter has been steadfast in his opposition to a hard cap system.

The league's first notable move was to promise the players at least $2 billion in collective salary (what they earned this season) over the life of the 10-year agreement. That means the NBA is no longer looking to take money back from the players. In this new proposal, the plan is to reach a 50-50 split of league revenue over the course of time. Under the current deal, the players receive 57 percent of league revenue.

"We think this is virtually the best shot we think we have to demonstrate our good faith and our desire to go as far as we can to avoid a lockout," Stern said.

With Mike Gavin

The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.