With the outlook pretty bleak for the NBA players and the owners to somehow get a deal in time to salvage the season, a glimmer of hope was spotted yesterday. CBS Sports claims to have a source in the owners camp that is saying the owners are remaining ‘optimistic’ that a deal can still get done before the court proceedings begin.
Although both sides are denying reports of any further negotiations, the CBS Sports source says there have been some ‘back-channel’ negotiations between the two sides since the players announced they were moving towards decertification of the union. But don’t get too excited yet, because apparently the owners have very little interest in having a shortened season under 50 games long. If you assume 20-30 days needed for preparations and beginning game play after any potential deal is agreed upon, to meet that expectation of the owners of a season over 50 games, they’d likely need to be at the table working on a deal in the next couple weeks. Here is more from CBS Sports:
“The 50-game season like they had in ’98-’99, the league doesn’t want that,” one of the people briefed on the NBA’s strategy said.
“I don’t know that there’s an appetite for a 50-game season,” another person familiar with the league’s position said.
Deputy commissioner Adam Silver did not respond to a request for comment on the league’s approach Friday.
Neither Silver, commissioner David Stern, nor any of the NBA’s legal representatives has spoken publicly since the players filed two antitrust lawsuits Tuesday alleging the lockout is illegal — one in California and one in Minnesota. But attorney David Boies, lead counsel for the players in the California case, said Tuesday the goal of the lawsuits wasn’t to see them to their finality — which could take years and bring everyone involved to their knees — but rather to “resolve these issues and allow the players to start playing.”
“Certainly, everybody in this building wants to have people start playing right now,” Boies said Tuesday during a media gathering at the players’ Harlem offices. “If it were up to the players, games would be being played right now.”
