The NBA lifted its player lockout yesterday merely hours
after it was imposed after having reached final agreement with
the NBPA on a new CBA. The delay meant an extension of the
moratorium on player signings and, negotiations and trades until
Thursday, July 11. According to NBA Exec VP & Chief Legal
Counsel Jeffrey Mishkin, both the league and union believe that
all issues are resolved and the parties are confident that a deal
can be "reduced to final writing" by tomorrow at 5pm EDT (NBA).
In Atlanta, Jeffrey Denberg reports the lockout lasted "exactly 2
hours and 38 minutes" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 7/10).
THE ISSUE: The "final sticking point," according to
multiple reports, was sharing $50M in profits from the $750M in
network TV money. Union attorney Jeffrey Kessler: "We found
this week when the language was drafted that we had a significant
disagreement as to what the deal was for involving those
revenues" (Lacy Banks, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 7/10). ESPN's David
Aldridge: "It's split 50/50 right now between the league and the
union. ... The players think they are going to get a larger share
of that money in years to come" ("NBA Today," 7/9). The N.Y.
TIMES cites a source involved in the talks who reports the NBA
agreed to allocate an additional $14M per season in TV money
toward the cap during the last four years of the deal (Clifton
Brown, N.Y. TIMES, 7/10). But the BOSTON GLOBE notes the deal
will result in a higher cap for '97-98 -- "although neither side
knows by how much" -- and increases of $250,000 in the final
three years (Peter May, BOSTON GLOBE, 7/10). NBPA attorney Ron
Klempner said the union "has no idea" what the revenues will be.
Klempner: "It could be $30 million. It could be $130 million.
We don't know. It's very difficult to give something away when
you're in effect giving away a blank check" (Mark Asher,
WASHINGTON POST, 7/10).
QUOTES: Kessler: "Money issues are usually open to
compromise" (TORONTO STAR, 7/10). Agent Keith Glass: "Every
interpretation is made by the league office. If you're the union
and want your players to have a chance, you have to get it
straightened out now because they're not going to interpret one
rule in the players' favor for the next six years" (Steve Popper,
N.Y. POST, 7/10).
LOCAL REAX: Magic President Bob Vander Weide: "I think
it's actually humorous. I think it would have been embarrassing
to have a strike or lockout that put fans in jeopardy of missing
basketball games" (bill Fay, TAMPA TRIBUNE, 7/10). NEWSDAY's
Barbara Barker writes it was surely "the shortest lockout in
sports labor history" (NEWSDAY, 7/10). Peter May: "One of the
wackiest days in NBA history" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/10). In Toronto,
Mary Ormsby writes, "In the space of an afternoon, the NBA killed
-- then resuscitated -- its own league" (TORONTO STAR, 7/10). In
Phoenix, Chris Cobbs: "The NBA took leave of its senses and
returned to them, pronto" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 7/10).
