Labor Talks Will Resume Today

Union leader Billy Hunter had promised to make one more call to NBA Commissioner David Stern, and he wasted little time picking up the phone. As a result, collective bargaining talks between owners and players will resume today.

No meetings have been held since June 1 when the sides met for 2 1/2 hours at the union’s offices in New York.

The last two weeks have been marked by public posturing from both sides. Hunter said he would call Stern before the current labor agreement expires June 30, and that call apparently was made Thursday.

Officials from the league office and the players’ union both confirmed that talks would resume at an unspecified site in New York.

On Wednesday, Hunter said he surmised from Stern’s public comments last Sunday that only three issues remain in dispute -- an age limit for rookies, a tougher drug-testing program and the maximum length of long-term contracts, but Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik said Hunter’s assumption was incorrect.

Owners are known to be seeking several other changes, including a new luxury tax (dubbed a “supertax”) for the highest spending teams, reductions in the size of annual salary increases in long-term contracts, a shortened rookie wage scale and adjustments to the so-called trigger percentages that activate the escrow and luxury taxes designed to curtail spending on player salaries.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers cleared more salary cap space by waiving guard Lucious Harris.

Harris’ release comes one day after the club declined to pick up forward Robert Traylor’s $1.76-million option for next season. Harris would have made $2.75 million next season.

The Cavaliers have eight players on their roster, accounting for a $23.3-million payroll. Last season’s salary cap in the NBA was $43 million, but could go up by several million next season in a new labor deal.

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Chicago Bull Coach Scott Skiles signed his four-year contract extension, a week after agreeing to the reported $16.5-million deal.