Philadelphia, PA – It was Winston Churchill that said "if you're going through hell, keep moving."
Thursday night was the first time that the NBA owners and players demonstrated any lucid thinking during the lockout, the kind of every man common sense that indicated they understood what the rest of us already knew, the fact that they can't afford to miss an entire season.
Yeah, the NHL once missed an entire campaign in 2004-05 while Major League Baseball made the colossal mistake of canceling the World Series back in 1994. Both have rebounded to overcome their hubris to flourish but no sports entity, not even the mighty NFL earlier this year, has had the unmitigated gall to slap the fans in the face during the worst economy since The Great Depression.
Any optimism that both sides realized that and the lockout was finally nearing an end turned out to be just another false alarm when the third straight day of talks broke off Friday without a deal.
Facing an unforgiving calendar, the NBA then canceled the remaining games in November and gave up practically any hope of having a full 82-game schedule with commissioner David Stern saying it wasn't "practical, possible or prudent to have a full season now."
"We held out that joint hope, but in light of the breakdown of talks, there will not be a full season under any circumstances," Stern said at a news conference. "These are not punitive announcements. These are calendar- generated announcements."
That was a stark contrast from Stern's demeanor after a pair of marathon negotiating sessions over the previous two days where both he and union head Billy Hunter were almost giddy with the progress being made.
The lone major figure that tempered things a bit was union president Derek Fisher, who called the progress being made "minor."
"We're working at it," the Lakers' veteran said on Thursday. "It's a tough process and as we move through and try to close the gap in as many places as we can, it gets tougher towards the end."
Fish may be on his last legs as a player but he may have a future as a 21st century Nostradamus since everything came crashing down on Friday with Basketball Related Income remaining the major sticking point between both sides, who were still unable to agree on a split of a $4 billion dollar pie.
The players held firm, wanting at least 52.5 percent of BRI with the owners still pressing for a 50-50 split.
Talks turned contentious from there, with Stern saying Hunter walked out on the meeting and Hunter stressing he couldn't sell an even split of BRI to the players.
"Our number was our number," said Hunter. "We just couldn't bridge the gap."
A curious stance since missing a month of the season will reportedly cost the players $400 million in revenue. Compromising and getting down to 51 percent of BRI, a number most think the owners will take over a projected seven-year deal, would only cost a total of $280 million.
"Both sides are very badly damaged. The amount of dollars lost to the owners is extraordinary and the amount lost by players under individual contracts is also extraordinary," said Stern. "But that's what happens in a labor dispute when there's a shutdown."
The players argue that they are already coming down from 57 percent of BRI in the last collective bargaining agreement and will never see that number again. Likewise if they come off the 52.5 number but that seems like a specious thought process since most of the players affected by this agreement will be out of the league by the next CBA. It's Hunter's and Fisher's job to get the best deal they can for this group of players.
So where do we go from here?
Well, no new talks are scheduled but there is little chance the parties are going to blow this up over the few remaining inches that need to be traversed. You can bet they will be talking early next week.
Remember the only way out of hell is to keep on moving.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/10/28/both-sides-must-keep-moving-in-nba-labor-dispute/#ixzz1c8RlZxMg
