NBA, Players Locked in Stalemate

Scratch another week.

The NBA and its players met on Friday for the second time this week, and for the second time, got nowhere.

This time they adjourned without scheduling another meeting. Even if they needed only one more week to end this impasse and reach an agreement, and three weeks more to get ready to start the season, they couldn’t open before Dec. 7, meaning players stand to lose 20% of their pay.

As in Wednesday’s meeting in New York, the two sides got together, waited for the other to concede something and, when it didn’t, decided they had nothing further to discuss.

“The union informed us they were unable to give us a new proposal, as they had indicated,” NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik said in a prepared statement. “We agreed that we are very far apart with no solution in sight.”

Billy Hunter, National Basketball Players Assn. director, wasn’t available for comment. The union originally scheduled a conference call but then canceled it.

Negotiations thawed two weeks ago when Commissioner David Stern said the parties were agreed on a “skeleton” of a deal and Hunter pronounced himself “optimistic,” but have been frozen in place since.

The union reportedly objects to the NBA proposal to limit free agents to 35% of the cap, and to put in escrow 10% of players’ salaries, which would be kept if players’ revenues surpassed the agreed-upon percentage.

Meanwhile, the league claims to be aghast at the union’s proposal for the players’ share of revenue, 60%. The NBA has offered 50% and Stern insists he will not split the difference and accept 55%.

So there they sit for the moment, far apart and growing no closer.