Well San Antonio Spurs fans, it seems the NBA lockout will officially begin to effect the 2011-12′ NBA season.
According to Ric Bucher of ESPN.com, the NBA is expected to announce today it will postpone training camps and exhibition games. After the NBA and the Players Association worked for five hours to get a deal done Thursday, there was very little progress in the negotiations.
Stern acknowledged Thursday that “the calendar is not our friend” when it comes to keeping the NBA season intact.
Both sides have agreed to meet again sometime next week as they’re both hoping to save the start date (November 1) of the regular season. The negotiations went sour Thursday when the owners wanted the players to take a -11 percent revenue sharing cut from their original 57 percent revenue sharing agreement. The new cut would have left the players with only 46 percent of the revenue sharing cut. The owners also still wanted a very hard salary cap. The players couldn’t give in to both demands.
Asked again if he thought things were far enough along to still believe in a Nov. 1 start, Stern said: “I don’t have any response to that. I just don’t. I don’t know the answer.”
From what it sounds like, it seems the players are doing what they can to help the owners in coming to an agreement. But the see-saw is getting to light for them. The owners need to also meet some of the players’ demands in order for the see-saw to get an equal balance so that both sides can come to an agreement.
“We’ll keep working at it until we figure this thing out, but right now there isn’t anything to really report or say,” Fisher said. “I don’t have any answers to any questions, other than we’ll keep working until we find some solutions.”
San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt was in attendance at the meeting on Thursday. Holt is currently the owner who heads the labor relations committee.