NBA, players union resume talks to end lockout

Published: Wednesday, October 28, 1998

NEW YORK (AP) - The NBA and the players' union, finally seeking compromise in the nearly 4-month-old lockout, resumed bargaining Tuesday but limited themselves to non-economic issues.

It was the first time since talks began April 1 that they had a detailed discussion of the many side issues that have been all but ignored in favor of the core economic themes of salary caps, luxury taxes and the "Larry Bird exception."

Personal conduct clauses, player discipline and marijuana prohibition were among the non-economic topics discussed at the four-hour meeting.

"We talked about a lot of issues. I can't say we made a lot of progress," said Jeffrey Mishkin, the NBA's chief legal officer.

On Wednesday, about 150 players are expected to meet in the morning while the league holds its Board of Governors meeting. Bargaining talks on the main economic issues will resume around noon at a Manhattan hotel.

The league, which has already canceled the first two weeks of the season, is expected to announce further cancellations later this week.

"We're trying to salvage as much of the season as possible," union director Billy Hunter said. "I'm optimistic we're going to get a deal. I can't say it's going to happen this week."

Commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik did not take part in the non-economic talks Tuesday, meeting instead with the owners' labor committee.

The likely focus of the owners' discussion was whether any positive signals could be taken from the nearly nine hours of meetings at a secret location Monday night. For the first time, owners discussed an economic operating system that does not include a hard salary cap - something the players have said they'll never accept.

"We need a system that eventually gets to where there's a set percentage for the players and a set percentage for the owners," Granik said. "I don't think it has to be a hard cap, and in fact some of the things we're talking about now are not hard caps."

The sides discussed a hybrid operating system incorporating aspects of each side's proposals.

It would include a two- or three-year period in which the players' luxury tax system is employed and then a two- or three-year span in which the owners' preferred system - a modified hard cap - would be implemented.

There are many specifics yet to be resolved, including at what figure a luxury tax on high-end contracts would begin and what the tax rates would be.

Owners have been pushing for a system in which the percentage of basketball-related income devoted to player salaries drops from its current 57 percent to 48 percent in the 2002-03 season.

Their continued insistence on an eventual 48 percent payout is the biggest stumbling block to a settlement, Hunter said.

The owners have also asked for other economic concessions, including establishing a maximum salary, reducing performance bonuses, changing revenue calculations, reducing the maximum length of contract from seven years to five or six, and eliminating direct licensing payments to the union.

In their last written proposal Sept. 24, the league included 19 pages stating its positions on all sorts of issues, a majority of which remain unresolved. Among the items:

- Prohibiting trades of players in the last year of their contracts unless the players waive their Bird rights.

- Requiring a waived player to play in the CBA if he wants to continue receiving his guaranteed salary, and giving the team that waived him the right to re-sign him.

- Banning 3-for-1 and 4-for-2 trades and "sign and trade" deals.

- Requiring all players who sign minimum salary contracts to agree to an option year, to be exercised by the team, also at the minimum salary.

- Eliminating buyouts and loans.

- Mandatory offseason workout programs.

- Prohibiting any player waived less than a month before the end of the season from signing until the 57th day of the next season.

- Grandfathering almost all players who entered the league since 1995, including current free agents like Jerry Stackhouse, Antonio McDyess and Damon Stoudamire, into a right-of-first-refusal system.

- Allowing for the contract termination of any player who attacks his coach, is convicted of a felony or refuses to report for more than five games following a trade.

- Eliminating lump sum salary payments, such as the clause in Shaquille O'Neal's contract calling for him to be paid his entire salary before the start of the season.

- Allowing a 10-game suspension for any player who misses the rookie transition program or any player convicted of illegal possession of a firearm.

- Increasing fines for missing practice ($2,500 for the first missed practice, $7,500 for the second, $12,500 for the third, etc.)

The union is adamantly opposed to almost all these items.