Progress Is Made in Labor Meeting

Significant progress was reported in NBA labor talks after the sides met for more than 11 hours Friday.

Commissioner David Stern, union Director Billy Hunter and several owners and players met at a New York hotel for the first substantive talks in weeks on a new labor agreement to replace the seven-year deal expiring June 30.

“We made significant progress today and tonight,” Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik said. “We will convene again in small groups over the course of the weekend and will reconvene the larger group on Tuesday morning.”

The talks began late Friday morning and lasted past 10 p.m. EDT. Neither side released details of what was discussed.

No meetings had been held since June 1, and the last two weeks have been marked by public posturing from both sides, but the statement from Granik represented the most positive language the league has used during the negotiations.

Among the major issues the sides were trying to resolve were a proposed age limit of 19 for rookies, a tougher drug-testing program and the maximum length of long-term contracts.

Owners were known to be seeking several other changes, including a new luxury tax for the highest spending teams and reductions in the size of annual salary increases in long-term contracts.

*

The Minnesota Timberwolves hired longtime Seattle assistant Dwane Casey as head coach.

Casey, 48, agreed to a five-year contract that guarantees three years’ pay. He’ll be charged with turning around a team that tumbled out of the playoffs last season after making the Western Conference finals in 2004.

“The Timberwolves are not broke,” Casey said. “They had a hiccup last season....It’s not a team that’s down. It just needs a little tweaking, especially on the defensive end.”

It’s the first NBA head coaching job for Casey, who served on the Seattle bench for the last 11 seasons and was promoted to associate head coach when Nate McMillan took over in 2000.

He replaces Kevin McHale, who served as interim coach for 31 games after firing Flip Saunders in February. McHale, the team’s vice president of basketball operations, had said his coaching stint would be brief.

McHale interviewed San Antonio assistant P.J. Carlesimo, former coach John Lucas and Minnesota assistants Randy Wittman, Sidney Lowe and Jerry Sichting, among others.

Casey’s coaching resume includes a stint in Japan and assistant jobs under Clem Haskins at Western Kentucky and Eddie Sutton at Kentucky.