(Reuters) – NBA owners and the players union have concluded their latest negotiating efforts with a proposal to be voted on by the players that if accepted will allow for a 72-game season beginning on Dec. 15.
“The labor relations committee made a revised proposal to the union which attempted to meet their concerns as best as we and the labor relations committee could,” NBA Commissioner David Stern told a press conference.
“We did that in the context of a possibility that we could have a 72-game schedule starting Dec. 15.”
The players union had hoped for more movement on several key non-financial issues after they expressed their willingness to move off their desired economic revenue split of in excess of 52.5 percent in their favor.
“Right now we have what we would characterize as a revised proposal from the NBA. It does not meet us entirely on the system issues that we felt were extremely important to try and close this deal out,” said NBA Players’ Association President Derek Fisher.
“Obviously, we still would like to negotiate and a find a way to get a deal done. But right now is not that time.”
Stern expressed that should the union not accept their latest proposal the owners’ negotiating position would switch to a less favorable 53-47 percent split of revenues in favor of the owners.
