NEW YORK (AP) — Push has come to shove in the NBA labor talks, which have broken down after four hours of fruitless talks.
The NBA has canceled the remainder of the preseason and will wipe out the first two weeks of the regular season if there is no labor agreement by Monday.
Commissioner David Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver made the announcement after owners and players met for about four hours Tuesday but came no closer to an agreement.
According to Stern: “We were not able to make the progress that we hoped we could make and we were not able to continue the negotiations.”
No further meetings are scheduled.
Players had offered to reduce their guarantee of basketball-related income from 57 to 53 percent, which they said would have given owners back more than $1 billion over six years. But they said the owners’ last proposal had them at 47 percent.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
