The NBA canceled the first two weeks of the regular season Monday after failing to reach significant progress with locked-out players in consecutive days of lengthy meetings. here.
It will be the NBA's first labor stoppage since the 1998-99 lockout, which resulted in a 50-game rather than 82-game regular-season schedule for the teams.
The sides met for nearly six hours Sunday and seven hours Monday. But NBA Commissioner David Stern, who said further reductions could be ahead, said the sides remained far apart on such issues as the luxury tax, certain exceptions to exceeding a salary cap, player raises, length of contracts and the split of basketball-related income (BRI).
"We had a sense we could get our way to an economic deal. The sides spent two days on the system issues. We just moved, it seems, further apart than getting closer," Stern said.
Losses include 100 regular-season games and about $325 million in BRI. Games scheduled for opening night Nov. 1 included the Chicago Bulls at the defending champion Dallas
Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Los Angeles Lakers.
"This is not where we want to be," union president and Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. "We believe we have made more than a reasonable and fair approach to this ordeal. … This is a big blow to our fans."
Union executive director Billy Hunter said he was "convinced" that cancellation of games "is all just part of the plan" to have players miss paychecks before coming around to a deal more favorable to the owners.
"You know we want to play & you understand the propaganda/misinformation from the owners," Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash wrote on Twitter.
The NBA will issue refunds plus 1% interest for season ticketholders for the entire
preseason slate canceled and the first two weeks of the regular season.
So the current agenda for the NBA reads: first two weeks of the regular season canceled; no further meetings scheduled; millions lost for owners and players; and the fans left in the dark.
"I'm sorry to report (the cancellation), particularly for the thousands of people that depend on our industry for their livelihood," Stern said. "We established the positions of the parties with complete certainty of where each stood, and we remain really very, very far apart on virtually all issues."
More cancellations could be coming. "Every day that goes by, we need to look at further reductions in what's left of the season," Stern said.
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