NBA Lockout Talks Go 7 Hours, Resuming On Monday

With one month to go until the NBA season is slated to start the NBA players union and NBA officials met for 7 hours on Saturday to discuss salary cap issues, a discussion that is slated to resume on Monday.

When asked if each side made headway union executive director Billy Hunter told ESPN:

“I wouldn’t say there was any progress. What happened was, they put some concepts up, we put some concepts up, and we’re still miles apart…There’s a huge bridge, gap, that I don’t know if we’re going to be able to close it or not.” Hunter added, “There’s a huge bridge, gap, that I don’t know if we’re going to be able to close it or not.”

Monday marks the first day when training camps would normally have begun with official games starting on November 1.

The 7 hour meeting was the longest since the lockout took effect on July 1 and focused on both an Owner driven “hard cap” and possible changes they would like to see to the “soft cap” which players say they want to keep in place.

Also still on the table is an issue with the division of revenues which wasn’t discussed because of the focus placed on caps during the meeting.

Speaking about a season cancellation NBA commissioner David Stern said:

“Our desire would be to not cancel, and we had been hopeful that this weekend would be a broader marker, but for reasons which we understand, the players suggested that we resume on Monday, and we said ‘fine.’”

On Monday smaller groups will meet to discuss plans and then on Tuesday they will come together once again to discuss their progress.

In the meantime Hunter says owners are still pushing for a trimming of a guarantee of basketball-related income for players from 57 percent to 46 percent. The 57 percent ceiling was agreed upon during the last collective bargaining agreement.

In the meantime players aren’t feeling all that great about their prospects of a 2011-2012 NBA season, Kobe Bryant recently said he was considering a season position on Italy’s Virtus Bologna after receiving a $6.7 million offer while Delonte West took a job at a furniture store to “make ends meet.”

Do you think this issue will be resolved before the new NBA season is slated to begin?