NBA to Begin 'Settlement Talks' Friday

(NewsCore) - Eleven days ago when NBA players disbanded their union and filed an antitrust lawsuit, commissioner David Stern said fans were in for "a nuclear winter."

When lawyers for the players and owners reconvene Friday in New York to start what are now termed "settlement talks," Stern and NBA owners have a chance of making it instead a Merry Christmas.

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. But the landscape has changed with the filing of an antitrust lawsuit the NBA will have difficulty winning.

Only Players Association president Derek Fisher from the union's disbanded nine-player executive committee will attend.

It is just the lawyers talking now, though Stern will participate. He has spent the past few days caucusing owners to gauge their interest in compromising on some key salary-cap issues.

There is also a possibility of setting parameters for free agents for just the upcoming season, ending the lockout and playing the season while negotiating a longer-term collective bargaining agreement.

Even if Friday's talks fail, former union director Billy Hunter, now part of the players' legal team, believes a Minnesota magistrate judge will host mediation talks next week in Minneapolis.

The players believe they have given and given, reducing their cut of the revenue pie from 57 to 50 percent. They have said they do not want to be pushed around any more by Stern's ultimatums.

If the owners can redo their most recent offer and lessen restrictions on free-agent spending for mid-level players, maybe the lawyers can get a framework of a CBA hammered out this weekend.

But the owners have shown no inclination to compromise from their latest offer, with many preferring to have no season, feeling they have already given back too much.

During turkey giveaways this week in Harlem, Hunter said of the upcoming talks, "They have to agree they have to negotiate, as opposed to it's [an] ultimatum."

Hunter said he believes the lawsuit has put the sides "at more a level playing field."