NBA lockout: Billy Hunter suggests players start their own league

While the NBA lockout languidly persists, Billy Hunter has an idea to get the players back on the court.

“Maybe we can start our own league,” said Hunter, the executive director of what used to be the NBA players union during a panel Wednesday evening, according to author Touré via SLAM.

"There’s talk of getting a TV deal and creating a new league but it’d have to be with a network that’s unafraid to cross the NBA."

Forget the owners and their proposed 50-50 split of basketball-related income, apparently some of the players think that they can do it all on their own.

Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire seems to be on board.

Last month he told Sporting News: "It's just a matter of us strategically coming up with a plan, a blueprint and putting it together. So we'll see how this lockout goes. If it goes one or two years, then we've got to start our own league."

Negotiating venues and a television deal, however, could be a very lengthy process. But perhaps this idea, if it takes on real momentum, could be one of the impetuses that could spur an agreement with the owners.

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Photo: Billy Hunter, right, with Derek Fisher. Credit: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters.

NBA lockout talks stall...again

Negotiations between NBA owners and players have stopped again without a new deal in place.

The NBA owners offered a new proposal to the players' union Thursday night, but union executives looked less than impressed.

"It’s not the greatest proposal in the world but I have an obligation to at least present it to our membership," said union chief Billy Hunter (pictured above).

Player representatives from the 30 NBA teams will meet Monday or Tuesday in New York to review the owners' latest offer. If they do not agree to the contract after those meetings, the offer will get worse, NBA Commissioner David Stern said.

"We await the response from the union," Stern said.

There is still a chance at a 72-game season that starts Dec. 15, Stern said, though the union would have to agree to the revised proposal early next week.

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NBA players, owners decide to meet again today

Less than 24 hours after locked out NBA players turned down team owners' latest contract proposal, the two sides agreed to meet Wednesday to continue negotiations.

The owners and players union were to sit down together in New York at 1 p.m. Eastern time (10 a.m. Pacific).

Both union executive director Billy Hunter and NBA Commissioner David Stern had said Tuesday afternoon that they would be willing to meet Wednesday to see if they could get a deal done.

Stern had given the players a 5 p.m. Eastern deadline to accept the league's offer, or risk the next offer being less.

The players rejected that offer after meeting with 43 players, 29 of them representatives for their teams, Tuesday in New York.

The players now have been locked out for 132 days and have seen the entire regular-season schedule for the month of November canceled.

-- Broderick Turner

Photo: Players union president Derek Fisher speaks at a press conference, joined by union executive director Billy Hunter and other NBA players Tuesday. Credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

David Stern says NBA players have until Wednesday to accept deal

Setting the stage for four days of intense contemplation, NBA Commissioner David Stern late Saturday told players they had until the end of Wednesday to accept a deal that would provide them between 49% and 51% of basketball-related income as part of a new collective bargaining agreement.

Stern spoke at the end of an 8½-hour negotiating session presided over by federal mediator George Cohen, who made six compromise suggestions to players and owners. Stern said the owners were willing to adopt five of the proposals but that the players’ union flatly rejected them.

Lakers guard Derek Fisher, president of the players’ union, said players offered to take around 51% of BRI, down from their previous 52.5% demands. He said “there’s no way in the world” players would receive 51% of the BRI under the owners’ flexible proposal.

“We’ve made the effort,” Fisher said. “It just doesn’t seem to be good enough for this particular group of owners.”

Player reaction to Stern’s take-it-or-leave-it offer was swift on Twitter.

“U gotta love an ultimatum,” tweeted San Antonio Spurs guard Steve Novak. “How does basketball ever even get to this point?”

-- Ben Bolch

Photo: NBA Commissioner David Stern addresses the media following a failed labor negotiation last month in New York. Credit: Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press

Alex Meruelo quits a deal to buy the Atlanta Hawks

Alex Meruelo, a child of Cuban immigrants, was set to become the first Latino owner of an NBA team when he reached an agreement to buy the Atlanta Hawks during the summer.

But Friday Meruelo dropped out of the deal, a week after reports emerged that the NBA had some concerns about his funding plans for the reported $300-million sale.

Meruelo issued a statement Friday: "Basketball is my passion, but professional basketball is a business. Although all parties negotiated in good faith, we were not able to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement on some key issues given the current uncertainty surrounding the [NBA] labor issue."

The NBA locked out its players on July 1 and it's uncertain if a labor deal can be done in time to salvage the 2011-12 season.

Meruelo, whose office is in Downey, got his start with the La Pizza Loca chain, but has diversified into commercial real estate, construction and broadcasting businesses.

The Hawks' ownership group said it was a mutal agreement to terminate the sale.

--Barry Stavro

Photo: Alex Meruelo. Credit: W.A. Harewood / AP.

 

NBA players, owners might meet Saturday

NBA players and owners could resume their labor negotiations Saturday.

The NBA has a Board of Governors meeting Saturday morning in New York and the players union is discussing Thursday whether they want to give the negotiations another shot at ending the lockout, now in its 126th day.

Negotiations have stalled each of the last two weeks, with owners and players stuck on the much-publicized split of basketball-related income. Owners have insisted on a 50-50 BRI split while players have agreed to come down to 52% after making 57% last season.

All games have been canceled until at least Dec. 1, with more cancellations likely if there’s no agreement by the end of next week.

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Heat owner Micky Arison fined $500,000 for lockout-related tweets

Miami Heat owner Micky Arison seems to be a smart businessman. He's the founder and chairman of Carnival Cruises, and Forbes estimates his total worth to be $4.2 billion. You don't get to be that successful by doing dumb things ... like tweeting about the NBA lockout when the league specifically has said not to make any comments on the topic.

But that's just what Arison did, with several lockout-related posts on his Twitter account last week. And Commissioner David Stern responded by fining Arison a reported $500,000 for the tweets.

"It was more about his timing," Stern said in an interview with the New York Post, without mentioning the amount of the fine. "We're trying very hard to get a deal done with the players, or we were, and we don't need any external distractions to that focus."

Stern added of Arison: "He believes his tweets were taken out of context and understands our concern about them. And he's very much on board with the other 29 owners about the deal that we want."

Arison's lockout-related tweets were quickly removed and he hasn't addressed the subject since.

It started when someone made a post on Arison's Twitter account, saying "Fans provide all the money you're fighting over you greedy ... pigs." Arison responded, "Honestly u r barking at the wrong owner."

Then someone else posted on Arison's account: "Know it's not ur fault at this point, it's become child's play. Grown men making stupid decisions over money." Arison replied, "Exactly."

The initial poster then responded: "Then can you bark at the other owners? This is RIDICULOUS!!!" To which Arison replied: "Now u r making some sense."

There was more, including Arison's retweeting of some other people's lockout-related comments. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, seeing that Charlotte's Michael Jordan and Washington's Ted Leonsis had already been fined for similar offenses.

Maybe Arison just needed to get some things off his chest. It's not like he can't afford it. If the going rate is $500,000 for a day's worth of Twitter outbursts, he can feel free to speak his mind some 8,400 more times before going broke.

That would keep Arison busy tweeting for the next 23 years. Hopefully the lockout doesn't last quite that long.

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Photo: Micky Arison. Credit: Michael Cohen / Getty Images

Kevin Durant: Kobe Bryant would beat LeBron James in one-on-one

It would be the Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier of basketball.

Imagine Kobe Bryant and LeBron James stepping onto a basketball court to play a game of one-on-one, pure intensity vs. pure strength.

The question is, who would win?

Basketball fans imagine the epic battle and indefatigably debate its enigmatic outcome. NBA players, whom regularly play with both men, are no different.

In one of a series of interviews at the Drew League vs. Goodman League rematch last month at Long Beach State, Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant said Bryant would win.

"He's probably the best one-on-one player in the game," Durant said.

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall disagreed.

"Depends on how LeBron plays," Wall said. "If he plays like he can with his size and his strength, like can't nobody stop him when he goes to the basket, then I pick him."

Perhaps New Orleans Hornets guard Trevor Ariza said it best.

"I don't know," he said, "but I know I would pay to watch that."

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Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: What happened?

Hopefully, with almost a full day to digest the news, everyone reading this has had time to recover from the shock and devastation of the Kim Kardashian-Kris Humphries breakup.

But what happened? How could two people so fully in love call it quits after an amazing 72 days of marriage? Why throw away all those hours of memories? Some theories:

--Kardashian wants to challenge Liz Taylor's marriage record.

--Humphries refused to change his last name to Kardashian.

--Humphries couldn't stand being the second-best basketball player in the family, behind Lamar Odom.

--Kardashian suddenly found out that Humphries does not play for the Lakers.

--Humphries decided "I've given her the best 72 days of my life, what more does she want?"

--Humphries angered Kim when he went up to stepdad Bruce Jenner and said: "You won an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon? Dude, what happened to you?"

--Their "buy one marriage, get one free" coupon expired after 72 days.

We may never know what happened to cause this marriage to end. All we can do now is stand back and wonder what might have been.

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-- Houston Mitchell

Photo: Kim and Kris in happier minutes. Credit: Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images

NBA cancels remaining November games

Talks to end the NBA lockout Friday failed again to generate an agreement, and the league will cancel the rest of November's regular season games, basketball officials said.

[update at 3:30 p.m.: NBA Commissioner David Stern has officially canceled the rest of November's games]

[update at 3:40 p.m.: Stern said Friday's talks ended when players union Executive Director Billy Hunter said he was not willing to go "one penny" below taking 52% of basketball-related income (BRI) with the league asking players to accept a 50-50 split. The players last season earned 57% of BRI, or $2.17 billion.

"He [Hunter] closed up his book and walked out of the room," Stern said.

The commissioner added it's "not practical, possible or prudent to have a full NBA season under any circumstances. I say that with apologies to the muncipalities" that have NBA franchises.]

"We made a lot of concessions, but this time, unfortunately, it's not enough," Hunter told reporters after a five-hour-plus meeting with NBA leaders in New York.

Hunter said he felt "snookered," by Stern, who promised Thursday to make a financial move Friday.

Hunter said the NBA wanted the players to move to 50% while accepting concessions on the salary cap/luxury tax arrangement that the union deemed prohibitive.

[update at 3:40 p.m.: Stern said he pitched a more favorable arrangement for mid-level exception players and sign-and-trade deals for teams -- like the Lakers -- that would pay a luxury tax for exceeding the league's tightened salary cap.

"We made a fair number of concessions," Stern said, noting that he was willing to extend by one year contracts length to five and four years for teams that would sign their own and other teams' free agents, respectively.]

"We did what [Stern] said [he] needed, and it was like their eyes got bigger," union President Derek Fisher of the Lakers said. "They just wanted more and more."

[update at 3:40 p.m.: Stern would not promise a 50% BRI offer in the next negotations after calculating an estimated $200 million in losses by canceling the preseason and all of the regular season games in November. "The next offer will include extraordinary losses," Stern said. "Both sides are very, very damaged. The amount of dollars lost ... is extraordinary.

"You can make computations [about] who's going to make it back. I know the owners will make it back. I'm not sure the players will."]

When talks will resume is uncertain. Fisher told reporters Friday he's boarding a flight home to Los Angeles.

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Photo: Billy Hunter. Credit: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images.

 

NBA lockout: Negotiations stall again

Negotiations between the NBA and its players union stopped Friday, with multiple reports pointing to disagreement over how to split basketball-related income  as the cause.

Representatives from both sides are due to explain their positions to reporters soon in New York, and the NBA could very well cancel more games after previously canceling 100 regular-season games from Nov. 1-14.

Owners want the players to take a 7% cut of BRI after contending that 22 of 30 teams lost money last season, with the league losing $300 million.

The players haven't moved lower than 52%, according to basketball officials. It is not immediately clear when the sides will gather again.

We'll have more later on latimes.com/sports.

-- Lance Pugmire 

Big day for NBA lockout discussions

Is Day 120 the lucky one?

NBA players and owners seem more likely than ever to end the lockout, though there are still obstacles in the way of a deal Friday in New York.

The two sides will continue to debate the luxury tax before turning to the biggest item of all, the split of basketball-related income. Optimism has been a large part of the last two days, but...

"They're still kind of far apart," said a person who gets daily briefings on the discussions.

Players don't want a high luxury tax because they think it will deter owners from amassing large payrolls. Owners, perhaps in fear of none other than themselves, want a high punitive tax for free-spending teams that are often the big-city ones.

As for the basketball-related income split, the owners have demanded a well-publicized 50-50 split while the players have previously come down as far as 52.5% of the take.

"Big Day today," was how players' union vice president Roger Mason summed it up on his Twitter feed.

A lot still needs to be done. Maybe there will be a resolution, finally.

Shortened season would help young players.

 Can players and owners agree on basketball-related income?

--Mike Bresnahan

Photo: Union head Billy Hunter, left, and NBA Commissioner David Stern at a meeting before the start of labor negotiations. Credit: Ed Kosmicki / EPA.

NBA lockout talks conclude for the night, bring more optimism

There was no need to stay for 15 hours. Optimism continued to flood the room in a comparatively short seven-hour negotiating session between NBA players and owners Thursday in New York.

No less an authority than Billy Hunter, the executive director of the players' union, sounded the most hopeful that the 119-day lockout would end soon.

"I think we're within striking distance of getting a deal," Hunter said at a news conference. "It's just a question of how receptive the NBA is and whether or not they want to do a deal."

The sides continued to peck away at peripheral items such as the luxury tax, the midlevel exception and the length of player contracts. The big talk, the split of basketball-related income, probably will be discussed Friday.

Stern was smiling as he sat down for a news conference, saying there was an element of "continuity, familiarity" between the sides.

"There are no guarantees that we'll get it done, but we're going to give it one heck of a shot" Friday, he said.

The second consecutive day of talks was short for a reason.

"I think everybody's pretty wiped out after last night," Hunter said, referring to talks that ended after 3 a.m. EDT Thursday morning.

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Photo: NBA Commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters in New York on Oct. 10. Credit: David Karp / Associated Press

NBA labor negotiations still going

NBA owners and players logged more than 15 hours in their previous negotiating session and apparently were on their way to another long one Thursday in New York.

Whatever it takes to try to save the season.

The sides are trying to beat the clock after guarded optimism emerged from a robust session Wednesday that stretched until early Thursday.

Reporters were not invited into the latest round of discussions, which began Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT, but it wasn't hard to imagine what was happening, especially after Commissioner David Stern's comments at a news conference Thursday morning.

He said Wednesday's meeting was productive ... and arduous. Then he said he was hopeful that Thursday's meeting would be equally productive ... and that it probably would be arduous.

Kevin Durant praises Blake Griffin

They both transformed their teams. They both put up monster numbers in their NBA debuts. And they both won the rookie of the year award.

But what would have happened if Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant had entered the league at the same time? Who would have been most deserving of the honor?

Durant says that's a no-brainer. "[Griffin] would have been rookie of the year."

Said Griffin: "I dont know about that. We were kind of in two different positions as rookies. We both did come in and we got to play a lot of minutes. You know, it's hard to say."

After being selected as the top draft pick by the Clippers in 2009, Griffin averaged 22.5 points and 12.1 rebounds in his rookie debut last season. (He suffered a broken left knee cap during the final preseason game in 2009 that kept him sidelined that year.) Durant, who was selected second by the Seattle Supersonics in 2007, averaged 20.3 points and 4.4 rebounds.

"I'm just fortunate enough that I didn't play the same rookie year as he did," Durant said. But it feels good to say I was rookie of the year and be in the same class as a great player like Blake."

Trying to choose which one of Griffin's dunks last season was the most spectacular is like asking a parent to choose a favorite child -- for most people, it's an awfully difficult prospect.

So we threw the question at Griffin.

Even he stumbled a bit.

Griffin talked about how there was a nine-game home stretch last season during which the Clippers were undefeated. When prodded a bit more, he mentioned the game against the Indiana Pacers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in which he scored a career-high 47 points, shot 19 for 24 from the field and nine for 11 from the free-throw line. (He had only one dunk that game.)

After winning, 114-107, he told The Times' Lisa Dillman, "As a kid, you always dream of having big games like you see guys do all the time. I watched guys like Michael Jordan. I don't know how many 40-point games he had. You think about it and you dream about it.

"But it doesn't really hit you. I don't think twice about it to be honest. It's one of those things. You have games where shots are falling."

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Report: NBA to scrap two more weeks Tuesday

The NBA is expected Tuesday to cancel more than 100 additional games from Nov. 15 to 28, the New York Daily News reported late Monday.

League and union officials did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for confirmation of the report.

The cancellations would come more than two weeks after the league on Oct. 10 scrapped 100 games from the Nov. 1 season-openers through Nov. 14.

NBA owners have locked out their players since July 1; players and owners are trying to resolve issues that include how to split basketball-related income in the increasingly bitter labor dispute.

Losing the Nov. 15-28 games would cost the Clippers eight games, including a road swing to Houston, San Antonio and Utah, with home games against the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Lakers would lose five games, including a Nov. 17 home game against the New York Knicks and a Nov. 23 trip to Oklahoma City.

--Lance Pugmire

Photo: NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver addresses the media before a NBA labor negotiation last week in New York. Credit: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images

Nowitzki delivers the heat for Rangers

Dallas Mavericks center Dirk Nowitzki threw out the first pitch before the Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday, delivering a low strike –- which was better than his performance in July after the Mavs won the NBA title.

“This time they told me to throw a four‑seam fastball,” said Nowitzki, who wore a blue Rangers jersey and cap. “I still don't understand what that means.  But I think that's the grip I had. Or was it a two‑seam fastball? I forgot.”

As for the NBA lockout, Nowitzki said he’s disappointed there hasn’t been more progress in talks between the league and the players.

“We were all hoping with the mediator that something was going to happen, and just talks broke off, so it's very unfortunate,” he said. “Hopefully we can get something going here anytime soon. But it doesn't look good.

"I've just been keeping in shape, working out, doing lots of cardio and lifting a little bit and running. If the season will start any time soon, I think I'll be ready.”

Nowitzki grew up in Germany, where baseball is a minor sport. Still, he was asked if he would consider an offer to try out for the Rangers if the NBA lockout continued.

"I  would love that," he said before turning serious.

"If there's no settlement I'll probably go back home soon, start training with my coach again," he said.  "It's time to really get back in the routine. Got to keep the options open, maybe see what's going on overseas."

-- Kevin Baxter, reporting from Arlington, Texas

 

 

NBA and players end labor talks, no new dates scheduled

Despite having a federal mediator on hand, the NBA and the players union broke off labor talks after five hours of negotiations Thursday in New York, and no new meetings are scheduled.

"Ultimately we were unable to bridge the gap that separate the two parties," said Adam Silver, the NBA's deputy commissioner. "We understand the ramifications. ... We're saddened on behalf of the game."

San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt said, "Hopefully, we can get back to the [bargaining] table, but certainly a tough day, a very tough day."

The negotiations apparently broke off because of a disagreement over how to split basketball-related income. Silver said the league offered to split BRI 50-50 with the union, but the union said it wanted at least 52.5%.

However, players union head Billy Hunter said they offered to accept a sliding scale of 50% to 53% of basketball revenue, but the owners held out for a strict 50-50 split.

"They thought 50% met their need," Hunter said of the owners. "I think it's all about putting money in their pocket."

In the previous labor deal, players received 57% of BRI, worth about $2.17 billion in total salaries last season. The NBA locked out the players July 1.

Owners and players met with federal mediator George Cohen for 30 hours over three consecutive days this week but could not reach an agreement.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has already canceled the first two weeks of the regular season. "I just assume as time goes on they'll cancel more games," Hunter said.

Stern did not attend Thursday's session because he was sick with the flu.

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Photo: Roger Mason Jr. of the New York Knicks arrives for NBA labor talks Thursday in New York. Credit: Frank Franklin II / Associated Press.

 

NBA mediation talks end for the day, are set to resume Thursday

Another day, another grueling negotiating session.

Wednesday's mediation session between NBA owners and locked-out players was halted before 4 p.m. PDT, and talks are to resume Thursday.

Federal mediator George Cohen told reporters in New York that Wednesday's session was stopped after nearly nine hours of talks to allow NBA owners and Commissioner David Stern to attend a previously scheduled NBA Board of Governors meeting, also in New York.

Cohen has instituted a gag order on the labor meetings as both sides work to bridge gaps over how to split basketball-related income (BRI). Last season, players received 57% of BRI, or about $2.17 billion in total salaries.

The sides had a 16-hour marathon session with Cohen that started Tuesday and ended early Wednesday morning EDT.

NBA labor talks resume after post-midnight session

Efforts to end the NBA lockout have resumed with labor talks with a federal mediator presiding Wednesday.

The session follows a grueling 16-plus-hour session that concluded just after 2 a.m. Wednesday. The mediator, George Cohen, instituted a gag order that kept the sides from assessing any progress.

The length of today's meeting is uncertain given the need of some owners to attend the NBA's Board of Governors gathering today, also in New York.

An NBA spokesman said Wednesday that the owners' planning committee meeting has been moved to "early this evening," as a result of the labor talks.

The Board of Governors are expected to discuss -- and possibly approve -- a revised revenue-sharing program that would help clarify how teams can improve upon a financial system that the league claims created $300 million in losses last season, with 22 of 30 teams losing money.

The planning committee is charged with tackling revenue sharing.

As the owners and players started negotiating Tuesday, they each wanted a 53% split of basketball-related income (BRI) after the players earned 57% last season -- about $2.17 billion. The sides were also divided on the owners' idea of establishing a hard salary cap or extremely prohibitive luxury tax that the players argue would reduce guaranteed money and contract length.

--Lance Pugmire