The NBA is seeking to add something to its All-Star weekend
in Phoenix in two months. "Now the league and its players are
seeing if they can add peace to the agenda." Officials from the
NBPA and the NBA got together last week in New York and are
scheduled to meet the rest of this month and through January to
"hammer out a new" collective bargaining agreement. "Never one
to pass up a well-lit stage," NBA Commissioner David Stern "would
absolutely love to make the announcement with sponsors and media
in heavy concentration." NBPA Exec Dir Charles Grantham: "We
want to see if there is a way we can reach an agreement around
the All-Star game if possible. ... It's clear there's a sense on
both sides that we would like to get a deal." The sides are
still "rather distant." The players will "give" on a rookie wage
scale, and the league is ready to give more of the "lucrative
licensing pie and even raise the percentage of defined gross
revenues that go to the players" from 53 to 57%. But the owners
want to "tighten the cap rules and restrict the tap dancing
around the spirit of the system. There is also talk of a four-
year limit on player contracts" (Steve Bulpett, BOSTON HERALD,
12/11).
