Archive for October, 2011

The NBA has canceled the preseason and says the first two weeks of the regular season are in jeopardy: Stern and Silver said owners offered players a 50-50 split of basketball-related income, far below the 57 players were guaranteed under the previous collective bargaining agreement but more than the 47 percent union officials said was proposed to them. Whatever. The only numbers that matter now are the millions that could be lost when arenas are dark. “The damage will be enormous,” Silver said. Players had offered to reduce their BRI guarantee to 53 percent, which they said would have given [...]

Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press has another update: “We’re apart on the split, but we know that the answer lies between where they were are, where we are,” Commissioner David Stern said. “And without defining ours or defining theirs, I think if there’s a will, we’ll be able to deal with both the splits and the system issues.” Training camps have been postponed and 43 preseason games scheduled for Oct. 9-15 were canceled, and more damage seems imminent. Given that nearly a month would be necessary between the time an agreement is reached and games could take place, both [...]

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel proclaims this is the year Dwight Howard will win MVP: 3. Howard will take on a greater workload with the Magic, as impossible as that might sound. The Magic aren’t expected to sign a star shooting guard to replace Jason Richardson, a free agent, leaving a more polished Howard with even more scoring chances. He’ll average a career-high 25 points per game (up from a career-best 22.9 last season), and a player’s scoring average always factors into an MVP race. I can see Howard complementing his offense by regaining the rebounding title and winning [...]

The Associated Press is calling Tuesday a “huge day” for negotiations: “A lot of signs point to tomorrow being a very huge day,” players’ association president Derek Fisher(notes) of the Lakers said. “There will be a lot of pressure on all of us in the room, and we’ll accept that responsibility and go in and see what we can get worked out.” The sides met in small groups Monday for about five hours, a session that Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said was mainly about “setting the table” for Tuesday. While careful not to put too much pressure on Tuesday’s talks, [...]