Right Now, It’s Labor of Love for Billups, Bowen

It’s not that Chauncey Billups and Bruce Bowen are negligent in their union duties as player representatives for the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs. They’re just a little pre-occupied by the NBA Finals to follow the ups and downs of the labor negotiations, including an 11-hour session Friday that yielded results both sides deemed a positive step toward avoiding a lockout on July 1.

“I haven’t heard anything from the meeting,” Billups said. “I just haven’t really been able to keep up with it. I’m just worried about the next three or four days. Not two weeks away. Although I am worried about it. I’m worried about this right now, though.”

Bowen said, “I’ve got a lot on my mind right now. It’s really hard. But I’m sure both sides are doing their best to try to resolve the problem that we’re having.”

Apparently the urgency of the matter prompted both sides into serious negotiations after they spent most of the week posturing.

When NBA Commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik made their annual NBA Finals address to the media before Game 2 last Sunday, the collective bargaining was almost the sole topic of discussion.

The tone was mostly one of exasperation, until near the end, when Stern sounded this ominous warning: “Given the coalition that has been put together amongst NBA owners to make this deal, to be this conciliatory, if July 1 comes and there’s a lockout, the union will have made a mistake of epic proportions that I don’t think the average member of the rank and file understands is taking place.”

On Wednesday, players’ union leader Billy Hunter said that based on Stern and Granik’s comments, the only remaining issues of contention were the rookie age limit, contract lengths and drug testing. Granik called that “almost a silly suggestion.”

“Those were merely three critical non-economic issues that we needed to have,” Granik told Associated Press.

According to Stern, the owners will agree to terms that give the players 57% of revenues and allow maximum contracts of six years if signing with the “home” team or five years if signing with a new team.

He also says the league has dropped its minimum entry age request from 20 years to 19. And the league implied that the union was resistant to its drug testing policy requests.

The union is concerned about other issues, including a “super” luxury tax that it fears would slow spending on player salaries.

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One of the reasons the Pistons have won the last two games to even the series is that Detroit is doing a better job of keeping Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili out of the lane.

So do the guards or the big men get the credit for the Pistons?

“It’s a combination of both,” Detroit guard Lindsey Hunter said. “We’ve made a conscious effort to try to keep those guys out of the lane.

“They’re going to beat us sometimes, but they’re going to have to make more than just one penetrating move. We’re there to take charges, then our bigs are coming over to block shots. It’s more than just one line of defense.”

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After a film session Saturday that Robert Horry described as “heated” on Coach Gregg Popovich’s part, another Spur said the coach was “giddy,” leading to a definition discussion.

“ ‘Giddy’ means a lot of different things to different people,” Popovich said. “One can be giddy for a variety of reasons. Let’s name a few.

“A bonus check makes one giddy. A glass of fine wine that’s bought cheaply makes me giddy. And in a basketball sense, I’m trying to think about what would make one giddy on the court, and the only thing that would make me giddy would be a win.

“I mean, you’re going to raise up on a win, but on a loss, you know, there’s no giddy in the loss. A whole lot of giddy in a win. But I don’t remember giddy in the film session.”

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San Antonio center Tim Duncan, whose father died during the 2002 playoffs, was asked what Father’s Day meant to him.

“Wow, deep question,” said Duncan, whose wife is pregnant with their first child.

“I think just like anyone else, I remember being around my dad and getting up and attempting to make some sort of breakfast-type meal and taking it to him in the morning.

“And as for future plans, I hope to be part of the same as that, to see my kids or kid or whatever it may be doing that for me, and having that kind of nostalgia feel.”

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NBA Finals

Detroit Pistons vs. San Antonio Spurs

Best-of-seven series tied, 2-2

All games 6 p.m. PDT

TV: Channel 7; *if necessary

*--* * Game 1: at San Antonio 84, Detroit 69 * Game 2: at San Antonio 97, Detroit 76 * Game 3: at Detroit 96, San Antonio 79 * Game 4: at Detroit 102, San Antonio 71 * Game 5: Today, at Detroit * Game 6: Tuesday, at San Antonio * Game 7: Thursday, at San Antonio*

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