NBA Lockout Looms As Sides Fail To Reach Deal
NEW YORK (WWJ/AP) - Union chief Billy Hunter says "it's obvious the lockout will happen tonight" after players and owners failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, potentially putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy.
Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions.
"The gap is too great," Hunter said.
The CBA expires at midnight, after which all league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday.
Hunter said he hoped the two sides would meet again in the next two weeks.
Games eventually could be lost, too. The last lockout reduced the 1998-99 season to just a 50-game schedule, the only time the NBA missed games for a work stoppage.
"We tried to avoid the lockout," union executive committee member Matt Bonner said. "Unfortunately we couldn't reach a deal."
WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke with Detroit Free Press sports columnist Drew Sharp who says the league wants to drastically cut how much of the revenue the players can get, but he still thinks the players share a lot of the blame.
"I'm all for them, you know, trying to get the best deal that they can, but they gotta understand that the business of NBA basketball, right now, is bleeding. It is hemorrhaging so badly right now. They have to do something dramatic or teams are going to fold," said Sharp.
"NBA players, guys that are making 50 million bucks a year and declaring bankruptcy, no one has sympathy for that ... The players need to realize that they are the villains from the public's standpoint," he said.
Sharp expects the lockout to last at least half the season.
The NFL has already locked out its players, and the two sides have been in discussions this week, trying to work toward a new deal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
