Clock Is Ticking for NBA Players and Owners

Union director Billy Hunter traveled back from Philadelphia on Saturday, and NBA Commissioner David Stern is due back from Aspen, Colo., today to begin one of the most pivotal weeks in the league’s history.

The league has set Thursday as the deadline for reaching a new collective bargaining agreement that will save the season, yet no new negotiating sessions have been scheduled.

The union says it has another offer for the owners, but will not present it until the league agrees to a meeting. The league says no meeting is necessary since it already has made its final offer.

“I have no plans to see David,” Hunter said Saturday. “When I get back I’ll decide with my staff what to do.”

Stern wants the players to vote on his final offer, but the union is resisting despite the pleadings of some players. The union’s 19-man negotiating committee is the only body authorized to present a proposal to the full union membership for a vote.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday that at least 20 players, including Shaquille O’Neal and Grant Hill, have approached former union head and current NBC Sports analyst Isiah Thomas and asked him to step into the process if plans for a player vote on the owners’ offer are not in place by Monday night.

Lon Babby, the agent for Hill, said the story was untrue.

“I talked to Grant today and he said he hasn’t spoken to Isiah for 6-7 months,” Babby said. “If Grant has something to say, he’ll say it directly to the union.”

Leonard Armato, the agent for O’Neal, did not return a message left at his office.

Hunter has said he would like to call all 430 players and 29 owners into the same room, possibly to bargain and possibly to vote, but it is unclear if the league would do it.

Hunter also gave his side of the story concerning Thursday’s breakdown between attorneys Jeffrey Kessler of the union and Jeffrey Mishkin of the NBA. The two were expected to meet. Hunter said that Mishkin “blew [Kessler] off and told him to fax the [offer].”

Mishkin has a different version, saying Kessler told him he did not have the offer in its completed form but wanted to meet anyway.