When will it end?
With talks stalled, lockout may not end until mid-January
Posted: Sunday November 29, 1998 06:48 PM
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Stern (right) and Granik have staunchly refused to set a "drop dead" date for saving the season, although they are pointing to mid-December AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- It's called the January Theory, and it holds that the
NBA lockout will last at least another five weeks.
"It could be that they don't meet for another month," agent Steve
Kauffman said Sunday. "I've been telling my players for the past couple of
weeks that they shouldn't expect to play until mid-January at the
earliest."
With negotiations stalled and the players believing the owners are trying
to further test their resolve, it appears that commissioner David Stern is
following a lockout calendar similar to the one employed by NHL
commissioner Gary Bettman during the 1994-95 lockout, which wasn't settled
until January 13.
The hockey lockout included a period from December 6-January 7 in which
no talks were held. The sides then made "final" offers and "final-final"
offers before a marathon negotiating session settled it.
It would take another three weeks of lockout limbo to match that month
lull. So far, the sides in the NBA dispute have gone 10 days since their
last full bargaining session, and that 9 1/2-hour meeting was the only one
the sides had in November.
Currently, the owners and players are at odds over whether there will be
preconditions for a resumption.
About 120 players participated in a conference call Saturday and were
brought up to date on the stalemate, a union spokesman said.
Monday will mark the second missed payday for the players, and a new
month will begin Tuesday with the outlook bleak. Millions of dollars have
been lost, the fans are upset and the long-term damage could be worse than
expected.
Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik have staunchly refused to set a
"drop dead" date for saving the season, although they have alluded to
mid-December being the ballpark date.
That vague deadline could be extended, however, if Stern backs off his
insistence upon having the deal put on paper and ratified -- a process that
could take 2-3 weeks -- before the lockout would be lifted.
"If they back off that 2-3 weeks, it's a different story. Then the
January theory makes a lot of sense," said Kauffman, who represents 19
players. "And remember, we can go from a doomsday scenario to a settlement
in a matter of 2-3 days."
Stern and Granik have said four weeks would be needed from the time a
deal was reached until the season could begin, but in reality that window
could be shrunk to three weeks -- and maybe as few as 18-20 days -- to
allow for free agent signings, trades and training camps to take place.
So if an agreement were reached January 4, for instance, and the
signing-training camp period was shrunk to 20 days, the season would begin
Sunday, January 24 -- one week before the Super Bowl and one week after NBC
was scheduled to begin its weekly telecasts.
Each team would then be able to play a 46- or 48-game season, but only if
two weeks were added on to the end of the regular season in April.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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