Stern: No Agreement, But Seeking 'Breakthrough'
DALLAS – With both sides determined to reach what commissioner David Stern described as a "breakthrough" in labor talks, NBA owners and players negotiated for more than five hours Tuesday in the second of three scheduled sessions during the Finals.
Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver both said they were optimistic that the negotiations have continued, with a second full-day session featuring nearly the full negotiating committees on both sides scheduled for Wednesday. National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter did not address reporters after the meeting at the Dallas Hilton Anatole, and players leaving the session said they would speak Wednesday.
"We haven't reached agreement on anything and we have a deal that there will never be an agreement to be spoken about until we have an agreement on everything," Stern said.
UPDATE: Why is there so much to talk about? Sources told CBSSports.com that the players made a formal counterproposal last week in Miami -- the first such proposal since the owners made their second proposal in April. Sources were reluctant to discuss details of the players' plan, since much of the time in bargaining sessions during the Finals has been spent explaining the details and responding to the owners' questions about it. But one detail, CBSSports.com has learned, is a sliding-scale model for the players' share of basketball-related income (BRI), where the players would take a reduced share of the pie if revenues went up.
In view of the NFL labor talks getting bogged down in the courts and mediation, Stern said there was "expressed determination on both sides to reach a compromise and accommodation with each other." The language suggested a further softening of the public rhetoric, though Stern described the tone of the negotiations as "in the language of diplomacy, open and frank."
"I just take it as a real positive that we're continuing to meet," Stern said. "When you have parties like this, it's just as easy if you don't think that there's a possibility of a breakthrough to say, 'All right, let's pack it in and let's go home.' But nobody on either side wanted to go home."
Echoing Hunter's comment from last week's bargaining session in Miami, Silver said a third day of meetings in Dallas could be scheduled for Thursday depending on how Wednesday's session goes.
Attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who represents players in both the NFL and NBA bargaining talks, opted to attend Tuesday's NBA session in Dallas rather than an unmediated NFL meeting at an undisclosed location.
