Things Never Looked so Good for NBA Lockout

If there’s ever been a time for fans to be hopeful that there may still be an NBA season this year, it’s now. After months of lawsuits, arguments, fighting, silence from both sides, the NBA Players Association and the NBA owners and execs are now all sitting down to talk and get things hammered out. Talks have been going on since late August, but the latest round of meetings has been the most promising yet.

Things appeared to be dismal as ever after the players rejected the owners’ latest proposal on Tuesday. That spurred another set of talks, which began on Thursday and ended late into the night at 1 a.m. That meeting proved to be perhaps the best of them all, with all sides willing to negotiate and work with each other, but key issues still need to be ironed out, and this is why both sides are meeting again on Thursday.

One of the biggest hurdles in the negotiations, the revenue sharing split, has now been agreed upon with the Players Association agreeing to a 50-50 split after originally asking for 53%. Along with that key issue, there were three others that all sides had come to terms with after Wednesday’s meeting, but issues still remained with the freedom in which players could move to luxury-tax teams as well as other tax and escrow issues that players are determined to stand strong on.

While this is definitely the best things have looked for the NBA lockout ever since it began in July, it’s also the most critical time for discussions. Those on both sides are still very determined to get their way in negotiations and talks could still potentially dissolve. If that happens within the next 24-48 hours, the players’ agents have said that they would strongly consider calling for a  decertification of the union, or move for a similar action such as a disclaimer of interest.

Categorized in: NBA