Players Association executive director Billy Hunter says the 2011-12 NBA season will likely be canceled entirely because the commissioner's negotiating leeway is in danger of being undermined by a group of hard-line owners. "The circumstances have changed among [David Stern's] constituency," Hunter told a group of lawyers Wednesday, as quoted in the Baltimore Sun. "In the last six or seven years, there is a new group of owners to come in who paid a premium for their franchises, and what they're doing is kind of holding his feet to the fire." Hunter told an American Bar Association conference that if he "had to bet on it", he would wager that there will be no NBA season. "We're $800 million apart per year," Hunter said Wednesday, adding, "something has to happen that both of us can use as leverage to save face." Read more: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6832574/billy-hunter-expects-entire-nba-season-canceled
This should surprise absolutely no one who has been paying attention. Remember earlier this summer when the NHL owners advised the NBA owners to blow the season off, that in the long run it is better to lose a season than make concessions?
