NBA players and owners spent a marathon 16 hours meeting with a federal mediator and planned to return early Wednesday to continue the talks.
They didn’t emerge with the deal commissioner David Stern wanted Tuesday, but things went well enough that owners decided to alter their plans after previously saying they weren’t available Wednesday.
More details if you click the link. I, for one, am cautiously opti–nope, still cynical. But, I mean, they’re talking. And that’s something, even if it’s probably nothing.
I guess at the end of the day they ‘have’ to make a deal. So the more they talk the more ‘optimism’ we should have. I was listening to a report that said they were no closer to making an agreement, but each side has a better understanding of what/why the other side seems so unwilling to move.
My biggest hope is that they strike deal and don’t cancel any more games. However, I feel it more likely that it will take more games being cancelled, more players losing money/missing checks before anything is finalized.
It’s interesting to me that many Players as well as Stern have come out and said things about how bad they feel for the many arena workers that are impacted by this. I wonder if they will try to do anything to help these workers? I can’t remeber who it was, but at least one player is having a special dinner for the aren workers in his city. Very nice gesture, not enough to make up everything. But maybe other players and the league can pull together a fund. At the end of the day, a few hundred or a thousand dollars means more to them than the players/ownders. I understand this doesn’t ‘fix’ things for them nor does it address the small business owners that rely upon NBA crowds, but it’s better than nothing.