NBA Labor Talks Break Down

(NewsCore) - After meeting for about five hours Thursday, the NBA owners and players emerged to announce that labor talks had broken down and no further meetings were scheduled.

Deputy commissioner Adam Silver, who has been the lead negotiator on behalf of the owners, did not confirm any further cancellations of games, but said the three-day federal mediation session had left the two sides far apart.

"We were unable to bridge the gap that separates the two parties," Silver said, according to USA Today.

"We are saddened on behalf of the game. We understand we're disappointing millions of fans. We have to regroup ... and determine what our next steps are."

With no further meetings scheduled, it is likely more games will be canceled, though Silver said the league will not take any more steps until meeting with owners Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Silver said it was "unclear" whether a full 82-game schedule was still possible because of the lockout.

He said Thursday's talks ended when the two parties could not get close on how to split the league's $4 billion in revenue.

The NBA has insisted it will not budge beyond a 50-50 split of basketball-related income (BRI), while the players, who were guaranteed 57 percent in the previous labor deal, had refused to drop below 53 percent in the new deal.

Silver said during the talks Thursday, the players' union had lowered its offer to 52.5 percent of BRI, while owners were continuing to stick to the 50-50 split.

San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, who is part of the league's labor relations committee, said it had been a tough day and neither side felt it was getting anywhere.

"It was a disappointing last 30, 40 hours," Holt said. "It's certainly a tough day, a very tough day. Both sides felt, for lack of a better word, 'stuck.' We've sort of worn each other out."

The two parties met with federal mediator George Cohen in a Manhattan hotel for a total of 29 hours over a three-day period.

Holt said that scheduling more meetings could be tougher than earlier in the negotiations.

"We are getting in a situation where games are being canceled, the costs are getting more and more for all sides, which makes it tougher to make a deal. Both sides hopefully won't harden," he said, according to the Journal.

Holt said that the ability for all 30 teams to compete was a bigger sticking point for him than economics. Many of the competitive aspects -- like salary cap structure and contract lengths -- have been major discussion points during meetings.

NBA commissioner David Stern missed the afternoon's talks as he was battling the flu, but was understood to have been involved by phone.

Stern canceled the first two weeks of the season on Oct. 10 and later pinpointed this week's talks as crucial to having a season at all. Stern suggested that without significant progress, his next step would be canceling games through Christmas.