No overtime, NBA shuts down

Negotiators for the owners and the players union made a final attempt to broker a new labor deal Thursday afternoon, but they separated after three hours without an agreement and with a gap of several billion dollars separating them.

Commissioner David Stern told union officials that he would urge owners to impose a lockout at midnight Thursday, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires, said Derek Fisher, the president of the players association.

Players and teams will be barred from contact with each other. Paychecks and health care will be suspended indefinitely. And all league business will cease until the owners and players find the means to overcome their philosophical and economic differences.

"We tried to avoid the lockout," Matt Bonner, vice president for the players association, said. "Unfortunately we did not reach a deal.

"We're going to keep working at it and hopefully get something done."

It could take months, if history is any guide. The last time the NBA shut down, in 1998, it took more than six months to reach a deal, causing the league to lose games to a labor stoppage for the first time. After that lockout ended, on Jan. 6, 1999, the NBA staged a condensed, 50-game season from February to May.

On Thursday, Stern said he was prepared for the harm that the lockout could cause the league.

"I'm not scared; I'm resigned to the potential damage that it can cause to our league," he said. "As we get deeper into it, these things have a capacity to take on a life of their own. You never can predict what will happen."

The league has enjoyed relative labor peace since the last lockout, renewing its collective bargaining agreement in 2005 with only modest changes and without an interruption of league business.

This time, though, owners are seeking a major overhaul of the league's economic system and players are resisting any significant changes.

The parties have hardly moved from their positions in the last 18 months of talks. Owners are insisting on a hard salary cap, shorter contracts and up to a 38 percent reduction in player salaries -- which would represent the most dramatic changes to the system since the league first adopted the so-called soft salary cap in 1984.

Despite annual revenues estimated at $3.8 billion, owners say the existing system is broken. Twenty-two of 30 teams are losing money, with leaguewide losses exceeding $300 million a year, NBA officials say. The players union disputes the figure and contends that the league could solve most of the problem with greater revenue sharing.

The players have nevertheless proposed a $100 million annual reduction in salaries, cutting their share of revenues to 54.3 percent, from 57 percent. Stern has dismissed that offer as modest. The league wants a 50-50 split of basketball-related revenues, but with a new formula that the union contends would reduce their share to below 40 percent.

The NBA becomes the second major North American sports league to shut down this year, following the NFL, which is in the fourth month of a lockout. Like the NFL, the NBA could be headed down a treacherous path of lawsuits, countersuits and labor complaints that further muddy the situation.

Billy Hunter, executive director of the players association, said the union had no plans to decertify, a move made by the NFL players association, and said the NBA players would instead continue negotiating. The two sides agreed to meet again soon, possibly in the next two weeks. The union is also awaiting an NLRB ruling on its unfair-labor practice complaint, which could change the parameters of the discussion.

Meanwhile, both sides are keeping an eye on the NFL's case before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis that will decide whether the NFL lockout is ended. That decision could affect the NBA's proceedings and the union's determination whether to decertify.

"When the 8th Circuit rules, there will be a lot more information for everybody," said Jeffrey Kessler, the players association's outside counsel, who is also involved with the NFL players' case.

The lockout comes as the NBA is coming off a captivating season, with record-setting ratings and revenue and a renewed interest among casual fans because of the rise of the Miami Heat and a rising crop of new stars. The league's popularity is perhaps at its highest point since Michael Jordan retired in 1998.The Heat, led by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, lost the championship to the Dallas Mavericks this month, in a six-game series that averaged 17.3 million viewers.

Stern was joined at Tuesday's bargaining session by deputy commissioner Adam Silver; Peter Holt, the San Antonio Spurs owner and chairman of the labor relations committee; and James L. Dolan, the Madison Square Garden chairman. The union was represented by its executive director, Billy Hunter; the players union president, Derek Fisher, a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers; and two members of the executive committee, Maurice Evans of the Washington Wizards; and Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs.