NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter said on Saturday he will
call NBA Commissioner David Stern this week and seek a
meeting to "see if there's some inclination to break the
impasse" over a league-wide lockout, according to Mark Asher
of the WASHINGTON POST. Hunter: "After that, the
conversation would be dictated by how he stands." Hunter
was in HI last week meeting with the union's Exec Committee
and player reps. The league and the union have not met in
21 days, including today (WASHINGTON POST, 7/13). Magic
player rep Danny Schayes told L.C. Johnson of the ORLANDO
SENTINEL that the players' meetings in HI were "productive,"
but the "ball is really in the owners' court." Schayes:
"This is the most unified the players have been in my 17
years in the NBA." Johnson also quoted Magic F Horace Grant
as saying, "Enough is enough. We, as players, are making
enough money, and the owners are making enough money, too.
I'm sure some of the minimum salary guys will want to kick
me in my butt for saying this, but if teams are losing
money, we have to address that" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 7/12).
TAKING SIDES: Syndicated columnist Donald Kaul wrote on
the lockout and wondered who "wouldn't take some pleasure in
seeing the sullen millionaire-crybabies of the NBA have to
live in the real world, with the rest of us, for a year or
so?" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 7/12). In Orlando, Tim Povtak
supported the Larry Bird exception and said it "is not what
has caused fiscal problems in the NBA. Questionable
investments have. ... Teams that make poor business
decisions deserve to lose money" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 7/12).
Steiner Sports Marketing's Brandon Steiner was a "Guest
Columnist" in the N.Y. DAILY NEWS and wrote, "The NBA
players and owners can't ignore that their competition is
ready, willing and able to gobble up the dollars being spent
on sports by corporate America. ... Corporate America can't
wait for the NBA" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/12).
