NBA’s Point of No Return: Jan. 7

Just when you thought the fun would never end. . . .

Signaling an end--at last--to weeks of posturing and sham negotiations between the NBA and its players, the league announced Jan. 7 as Commissioner David Stern’s long-awaited “drop-dead date,” after which it will be too late to save the season.

The league’s board of governors will meet that day in New York and if the news isn’t good, will be asked to cancel the 1998-99 season.

“If we do not have a collective bargaining agreement by that date, then David and I will have to recommend to the board that the 1998-99 season be canceled,” deputy commissioner Russ Granik said.

Union head Billy Hunter couldn’t be reached. Sources say Stern--who is vacationing in Aspen, Colo.--spent the last two days trying to call Hunter--who is vacationing in the Bay Area--to resume talks and, failing in that, decided on Wednesday’s announcement.

In Hunter’s place, agent Arn Tellem told the Associated Press, “It’s my view that if the owners are unwilling to move from their current proposal, the season will then be canceled. I believe that ultimately when the players analyze this, there is no way they will ever take the deal on the table. . . .

“For players to accept what the owners want would be devastating to the vast majority of all current players and to all future players in the NBA.”

Canceling the season would, at least, bring the curtain down on eight weeks of pointless “negotiations,” with both sides seemingly content to let the clock wind down before making an earnest attempt to reconcile their differences.

One side, then the other, has pulled out of talks. On two occasions, union leaders reneged publicly on verbal agreements, infuriating Stern, who broke off negotiations each time.

A source reports that NBA officials claim it happened a third time a week ago, after which Stern suddenly announced he was off to his vacation home in Aspen.

Late last week, Hunter held a news conference, saying he was prepared to make new “major” concessions on capping high-end players’ salaries, pleading with Stern to reopen talks.

From Stern came only a press release, noting that the last time they had met, it had been at Stern’s initiative, not Hunter’s, as Hunter had claimed.

Yes, you could say the atmosphere hasn’t been particularly elevated.

Hunter asked Stern all this month for a drop-dead date, but Stern has refused, preferring to keep the players in suspense, hoping it would undercut their resolve. The players held, and Stern finally had no choice but to try it Hunter’s way.

There is speculation that Hunter has needed only a deadline to get serious--believing that Stern wouldn’t get serious until the end.

Banded together despite tension, with low-end players eager for a deal but afraid to contradict Hunter and the heavyweight agents and their star clients who are backing Hunter, the union, surprisingly, held together.

However, in recent weeks, there have been notable defections: Charles Barkley counseling peace on Fox Sports News, erstwhile hawk Karl Malone calling Stern’s last proposal “a fair deal,” Tim Hardaway, the MVP of last week’s exhibition dud in Atlantic City, N.J., using his platform to note, “Come on, you know we’re going to be playing. It’s just a matter of time for them to work things out and take care of business.”

There is speculation that Stern, too, has been waiting for the point of no return to make a deal. Madison Square Garden President Dave Checketts, a Stern ally, once asserted that the league was going to take its insistence on a “new paradigm” to the bitter end, noting that baseball and hockey failed to get what they needed from their unions before resuming play in 1995 and are paying the price for it now.

The two sides are thought to be five points apart on the revenue split--the league offering 52%, the union asking 57%--but have never been able to marshal enough good will to get any closer.

Now they have only two weeks to try to frighten each other and learn the art of compromise. One way or the other, the end is not only in sight, but on the calendar.