Ken Berger of CBSSports.com tweeted Wednesday morning that "The table is set for a deal to be agreed to by Sunday. If either side messes it up, inexcusable."
Meanwhile, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports seemed to echo that sentiment when he tweeted that David Stern and Billy Hunter "will talk over the weekend without antics and get down to it." While none of this sets anything in stone, and there remain no guarantees, it's clear that this weekend represents a crucial juncture in NBA labor talks. Source: Ken Berger on Twitter Oct 5
Ken Berger reported late Tuesday night that the players and owners are just $80 million apart annually in CBA negotiations, with the owners informally offering players 49% of BRI and the players informally countering with 51% of BRI.
Those are both guaranteed amounts of BRI and include the opportunity for the players to earn another 2% if the league does well. The owners have staked out a position so ridiculous that their offer of 50% (49% min, 51% max) of BRI to the players will appear to the casual observer as fair. However, this will be the worst CBA negotiated by the NBPA in the past 28 years, and it comes at a time when basketball is (was?) at an apex of popularity. Because they've already given back enough money to cover 2/3 of the owners' alleged losses, the players could very well surprise us and not give back anymore, and if the owners insist on any system changes that lowers these numbers that could also torch a deal. But being just $80 million apart is cause for optimism, and as long as there are no snafus, this is a closeable gap. More than half of league insiders believe it can be covered. Frankly, with how weak the NBPA is we're surprised they didn't take today's offer.