The NBA may be coming home for Christmas. Owners and players reached a tentative agreement on a new labor deal early Saturday that would end the five month old lockout and have the league up and running by Dec. 25 and include a 66-game season. “We’ve reached a tentative understanding,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said early Saturday morning. “We’re optimistic that it will hold and we’ll have ourselves an NBA season.” Owners and players must vote to approve the deal to finalize the agreement. Players will have to reform the union and then ratify the deal to make it official. Lawyers for owners and players talked for 15 hours on Friday. The framework of a deal is in place but there are B-list issues, including drug testing, early entry draft age and D-League assignments that both sides still have to agree upon. “Once we present it (to our players) we’re confident they will support it,” said union executive director Billy Hunter. It was crucial for Stern to have a handshake agreement this weekend in order to start by Christmas, traditionally one of the league’s showcase dates. Stern has said on numerous occasions that the league would need approximately 30 days from an agreement to when games could be played. Lawyers would need 10 days to two weeks to write up the agreement. That would be followed by an abbreviated free agency period and training camp which would likely include just two preseason games. Stern added that training camp should open by Dec. 9. Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube were representing the owners at Friday’s talks. The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy. Because the players filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league last week while the league filed a pre-emptive suit in New York, seeking to prove the lockout was legal, the talks centered on settling their lawsuits. Prior to this week, the sides hadn’t spoken since talks broke down on Nov. 14 when players rejected the owner’s proposal that included a 72-game game schedule that would begin on Dec. 15. When the union dissolved, Stern said that the NBA was heading for a “nuclear winter.” However, the decision by players to dissolve and file an anti-trust lawsuit appears to have worked in their favor. Although Stern had threatened that the next proposal from the owners would not be nearly as good as the last, owners are showing a willingness to tweak certain “system issues” related to the mid-level exception. During the last work stoppage in 1998-99, the two sides didn’t settle until January and the 50-game season didn’t begin until the first week of February. Owners reportedly are reluctant to play only 50 games this season. Under the proposed 66-game season, the playoffs and the NBA Finals would begin a week later than originally scheduled. Read more:
(Source: New York Daily News)
Welcome back to the Sacramento Kings John Salmons and welcome Jimmer Fredette, Tyler Honeycutt, and Isaiah Thomas!
It looks like the Sacramento Kings won’t become the Anaheim Royals after all — at least not next season.
Despite speculation that the Kings had all but packed their bags for Southern California, the NBA now thinks the team will remain in Sacramento next season, according to a Los Angeles Times report Friday.
However, the Kings’ long-term future in Sacramento remains uncertain beyond 2011-12, the Times reported, citing league executives.
At the NBA Board of Governors meeting last week in New York, the NBA granted Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof an extension until May 2 to file paperwork requesting a relocation to Anaheim.
Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson attended the April 15 meeting as well to make a desperate pitch to keep the Kings in Sacramento, and he persuaded the league to dispatch a fact-finding team to Sacramento. Johnson believes he made another splash when they arrived. He presented $9.2 million — up from the $7 million he initially cited last week — in commitments for new advertising, ticket purchases and other financial support from regional businesses and other backers to prevent the team from moving to Anaheim.
Johnson and other political and business leaders emerged from meetings with NBA officials Thursday optimistic about their efforts to keep the Kings in town.
“If you go back a week ago from today, we thought it was virtually over,” Johnson, a former NBA All-Star, said Thursday. “And not only did we prevent the team from leaving, we got a chance to show them who we are. And when we said $7 million, and the commissioner said, ‘Well, prove it,’ he sent a team out and we over-delivered. I mean, this is Sacramento. This is what makes us great.”
The Kings likely won’t make a long-term commitment to staying in Sacramento without a new arena.
After years of failed efforts to replace outdated Power Balance Pavilion, formerly called Arco Arena, Sacramento officials are using the extra time before the Maloof’s relocation application deadline to show the NBA that they can finally agree on a plan to finance a new facility.
A new arena feasibility plan — the major sticking point in past efforts — won’t be completed until a few weeks after the relocation deadline. A majority approval by owners would be needed to approve the move, and political leaders in Sacramento believe there’s still time to convince the NBA the Kings shouldn’t leave.
“I don’t think they have made up their minds,” city councilman Rob Fong said.
via ESPN
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/news/story?id=6411267
Sacramento Kings 2010-2011
Top Row Players: Darnell Jackson#41, Hassan Whiteside#33, Jermaine Taylor#3
Middle Row Players: Eugene “Pooh” Jeter#5, Beno Udrih#19, Tyreke Evans#13, Marcus Thornton#23
Bottom Row Players: Francisco Garcia#32, Omri Casspi#18, DeMarcus Cousins#15, Samuel Dalembert#10, Jason Thompson#34, Donte Greene#20
