The NBA said yesterday it will not make further
announcements about its schedule until either a CBA
resolution is announced or the season is canceled entirely.
A December 12 Mexico City game was postponed, and the league
said it would return there in '99 (USA TODAY, 10/29).
COULD LEAGUE RECLAIM GAMES? Stern "offered a ray of
hope" yesterday by saying that some games could be
"recaptured" after the lockout. Union officials said Stern
"told them that games could be made up by pushing back the
start of the playoffs or by adding them to open dates in the
existing schedule." Stern: "We want to be ready to be
imaginative" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 10/29). A league
official said that a reconfiguration of the season "was
being worked on so that teams would end up with the same
number of road and home games" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/29). In
L.A., Mark Heisler reports that sources tell him that if the
season starts on December 1 and "all of the games were made
up, players would be paid in full, recouping the 16% of
their salaries the league had been insisting they already
forfeited, a powerful incentive." One agent: "I expect this
to be done by Nov. 10" (L.A. TIMES, 10/29).
TV TIME OUT: Hunter noted the NBA is still receiving TV
rights payments from partners Turner and NBC: "We also have
to consider circumstances with NBC, which helped to finance
the lockout. I read the business pages yesterday and I see
NBC expects rather significant problems themselves. I don't
think NBC and TNT will stand by and let there not be a
season. I don't have to close my eyes to that" (Newark
STAR-LEDGER, 10/29). Jordan: "The networks are being
unfair. It shows why David Stern is as powerful as he is,
how he could convince NBC to live up to its contract even
when games will not be played" (TORONTO SUN, 10/29).
WILL WORK FOR CHANGE: On ESPN.com, Frank Hughes reports
that several "prominent player agents said that [the NBPA's]
Hunter has not yet circulated the criteria for procuring a
loan from the union." One agent: "I think Bill definitely
needs to set up some guidelines for who gets money."
Hughes: "In fact, Hunter has not yet told his constituents
when the money will be made available, a somewhat serious
oversight considering some players will begin to feel the
pinch quite soon" (ESPN.com, 10/29). A group called Fans
Union solicited contributions on the sidewalk outside talks
yesterday on behalf of "needy" NBA players (Mult., 10/29).
REAX: In Boston, Michael Holley writes that while
owners "shouldn't have complained about escalating salaries
when they are the ones who bankrolled them," the players and
owners "alike have not felt the worst backlash yet."
Holley: "Basketball players are not striking. But they will
be treated that way. We have not seen how an overwhelmingly
white public reacts when a league, 80 percent black, shuts
down and becomes entangled in multimillion-dollar money
matters. ... Rich black men asking for more? The country
hasn't seen that in terms of a sports labor dispute. ... I
think it will take a decade, at least, for the NBA to come
back" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/29). In N.Y., Filip Bondy writes
under the header, "May Be Tough To Rebound," that "No matter
how clumsy, how unsympathetic the locked-out players appear
in this clash, they are not the ones changing the rules as
the game goes along. ...It is always easy to scream at the
players" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/29). Also in N.Y, Ira Berkow
writes that while it is "difficult to sympathize" with
either side ... in this corner, the edge goes to the
players" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/29). In Minneapolis, Patrick
Reusse wonders, "Where is the outrage" about the NBA
lockout? Reusse: "There is more blood on Stern's hands with
this work stoppage than there was on [Bud] Selig's during
the baseball strike" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 10/29). In
Philadelphia, Bill Lyon calls the public's response
"deafening silence and thunderous indifference"
(PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 10/29). NEWSDAY's Shaun Powell:
"Instead of seeing or hearing a public outcry, the players
and owners are getting a far more harsher treatment. Their
little labor fight is being ignored" (NEWSDAY, 10/29).
LOCKOUT FALLOUT: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Stefan
Fatsis reports that some of the NBA's 29 teams "will forfeit
well over" $2M for each missed game in lost income from
tickets, concessions, merchandise, advertising and
broadcasting rights. TNT "could sacrifice as much as"
$500,000 a game by having to substitute other programming
for lost games." Analysts also expect as much as a 70% drop
in sales of licensed NBA apparel if the season doesn't start
until the new year" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/29)....An
ESPN.com poll of 5,815 votes showed at 37.2% feel there
won't be a '98-99 season, while 33.7% said the season will
begin in January or later. The remaining 29% predicted a
December start (THE DAILY)....Cavs G Bobby Sura, on league
substance testing: "As long as they don't test for alcohol,
because I do drink a little bit" (PLAIN DEALER, 10/29).
