As the National Basketball Players Association's negotiating committee convenes Thursday to plot its next move in the labor talks, the union and representatives of the owners will meet Saturday afternoon in in New York, union official and Knicks guard Roger Mason Jr. told The Associated Press. The weekend meeting will be yet another attempt at ending the lockout, which entered its 126th day Thursday. The most recent labor talks occurred last Friday and fell apart in dramatic fashion. Afterward, NBA commissioner David Stern canceled the remainder of November regular-season games and said there is no chance of rearranging or extending the schedule to play a full slate of 82 games. A source told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher that union president Derek Fisher, who flew in from Los Angeles, would meet with Stern and his committee at some point before returning home. Read more: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7185628/nba-lockout-talks-resume-saturday
There have been reports of a possible rift between union executive Billy Hunter and president Derek Fisher. Also, some players have said both privately and publicly they are OK with the 50-50 split of basketball-related income (BRI) sought by the league. Or depending on whom you believe, a lot of players are OK with it. Even if not entirely true, it will be in the back of the minds of both parties during Saturday’s negotiations. It may not come up, but anyone who thinks the union’s reported differences won’t act as an elephant in the room is kidding themselves. Another thing that’s becoming even more evident is that a certain group of owners is willing to kiss off the season to get exactly what it want. They are known as the “hardline” owners -- or those from the smaller markets who want the new collective bargaining agreement to offer every organization the same opportunity to compete. I found this article at http://www.itsmyplay.com/news/list/19 but you have to register for the website first. It is a new sports network where the people involved in basketball from all around the world get connected with each other and promote themselves.
