NBA Cancels First 2 Weeks of Season

The once-charmed National Basketball Assn., which maintained labor peace through three decades of baseball and football strikes, tumbled into the maelstrom Tuesday as Commissioner David Stern canceled the first two weeks of the upcoming season.

It was the first labor-related cancellation of a slate of games in the 51-year history of the league, which once used replacements in disputes with the referees’ union and locked players out for three different summers in the ‘90s.

On Nov. 3, when the nine-game schedule is wiped out, its perfect record will become history. With negotiations stalled Tuesday, there was speculation that Stern will soon have to cancel all remaining November games.

“Lousy, disappointed,” Stern said in a telephone news conference from New York, asked to describe his feelings. “My job is to put on games for the fans, not to cancel them. It’s terribly disappointing.”

Stern’s announcement cancels 99 games Nov. 3 to 16, a move that will cost more than good will. The average NBA team grosses about $500,000 a game, meaning the owners will lose about $50 million. The league has also announced a refund plan, plus 6% interest, for season-ticket holders.

Players, who are paid on the basis of an 82-game season, will lose 8% of their salaries. With the Lakers missing seven games, Shaquille O’Neal stands to forfeit $1.28 million of his $15-million salary.

The two sides have been at an impasse since Stern announced last fall that the owners would exercise their option to reopen this contract, which had three more years on it. His decision to lock the players out--for the third time in five summers--did nothing to soften the atmosphere.

Player salaries are the issue. In the last labor agreement in 1995, the owners agreed to pay the players between 48% and 51.8% of revenues. If the percentage went higher--and owners claim it reached 57% last season--the owners had the right to toss out the old contract and seek a new one, which they did.

Since the July 1 lockout, league officials and leaders of the National Basketball Players Assn. have met only three times--and the NBA representatives walked out of one of those sessions.

In the interim, the union executive director, Billy Hunter, and the group’s counsel, Jeffrey Kessler, both trial lawyers, were engaging Stern, another trial lawyer who has never been shy about using the courts to gain an advantage at his own game: litigation.

The union filed a case before an arbitrator, asserting that 220 players with guaranteed contracts must be paid, whether or not there are games. It was heard last month by John Feerick, the dean of Fordham Law School, who then announced he would take the entire month available to him before releasing his decision--all but paralyzing the process in the meantime. Feerick’s decision is expected by Sunday.

The two sides met only once between July 1 and Sept. 31, with Stern leading a walkout. He complained that Kessler had “lectured” league representatives that they had better make a deal since they might lose the arbitration case.

After that, everyone took another month off before coming together again last Wednesday, with time running out and everyone discovering their manners. In a more conciliatory meeting, Hunter discussed the owners’ proposal--which had been on the table all summer but which had barely been taken up--and asked to make a counterproposal.

The two sides met again Tuesday, with the union suggesting a “luxury tax,” a surcharge that would have the effect of depressing top salaries to address the owners’ demand for “cost certainty,” meaning they want to put an absolute ceiling on the amount of money that can be devoted to payrolls. The union refuses to accept a “hard” salary cap.

“I think we definitely surprised them,” Hunter said. “Our intention was to put something bold on the table.

“The message here is that we’re trying. What kind of response they make will determine what kind of progress we can make and whether we can salvage the rest of the November schedule--or the rest of the season.”

Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik said they were surprised by the offer and would study it but noted it was too little too late to bring about an agreement and start on time.

“The last couple of days, you’ve noticed they [NBA officials] are being a bit more conciliatory,” said Steve Kauffman, a Malibu-based agent for several NBA players. “From what I saw online, they’re saying, ‘We’ll look at this luxury tax.’

“On one hand, two weeks is a major statement by the league. On the other hand, people are talking and exchanging information.

“But once you miss a game you lose that perfect record, which I always thought was something to be proud of. You’ve already zapped the players and ticked off the fans. From the league’s standpoint, why not hold out to see how the players react?”

Lending credence to the direst predictions, officials on both sides note a mean atmosphere that surfaces frequently amid the displays of cordiality.

No new negotiating session has been scheduled.

* BOUNCED FROM SHELVES: Retail chain buyers are cutting their orders for the NBA’s licensed apparel. C1