NBA Cancels First Two Weeks of Season

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Oct 11, 2011 2:00PM

Despite marathon days of negotiations, NBA team owners and players remain far apart on a new labor deal. On Monday night, Commissioner David Stern made good on his threat and cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season. For the Bulls, this wipes out seven games including their opener against the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. This marks just the second time that the NBA has cancelled games. During the 1998-99 season, the regular season was reduced to 50 games after a labor dispute carried well into winter.

While the players have been trying to hold firm with their demand for 53 percent of basketball related income (BRI), it appeared that the league and players were making some progress toward a deal on the new collective bargaining agreement after the owners proposed a 50-50 split of revenue. But on issues like the salary cap, luxury tax and contract lengths there remained a wide gap.

Now, with the cancellation of games, Stern has taken a punitive tone, warning that any future negotiations with the players association would have "to account for the losses we are incurring." To that affect, the owners have taken the 50 percent offer off the table, replaced with an offer of 47 percent of revenue. How the loss of 2 weeks equals a three percent drop in money for the length of the collective bargaining agreement, we don't know. If the league continues to hold players alone responsible for lost revenue, we expect to see a long, ugly dispute before any deal gets worked out.

With each passing day, Stern will continue to chip into the season, and at some point will call the entire year off. Will the two sides find common ground before that happens? With both sides offering little in the way of compromise, we're not so sure.