NBA League Office, Players Union to Meet Today


Though David Stern, Billy Hunter and Adam Silver won’t be in the room, the League and the Union are slated to begin meeting again, their first pow-wow since the lockout started. From SI: “This would appear to be the first formal contact between the two sides since the league locked out the players two weeks ago when the last collective bargaining agreement expired. The NBA and the union remain far apart on several core issues, including how to split up the league’s revenue among the teams and players, and how to define what goes into that revenue pool to begin with. The union has also questioned the accuracy of the league’s claim that teams collectively lose hundreds of millions of dollars each year. One purpose of Friday’s meeting is to confirm the basketball-related income total from the 2010-11 season, sources said. Under the just-expired CBA, the players were entitled to 57 percent of those revenues. NBA.com broke the news earlier this week that the final revenues are expected to come in high enough that the players will receive all $160 million that had been withheld from their paychecks and placed in an escrow fund. The league takes 8 percent from each player’s paycheck and tosses it into that fund to make sure they it doesn’t overpay the players beyond that 57 percent level. If it turns out the players receive too little money without the escrow cash, as will reportedly be the case this season, the owners give some or all of that money back. If revenues are lower and the amount the players have already received exceeds 57 percent of revenues, the league keeps some or all the escrow money.”