Stern: Getting a new NBA deal before deadline will be ‘challenge’

Associated Press

MIAMI

David Stern has added another negotiating session to the two already scheduled with NBA players next week, and says there will be more beyond those.

Even that might not be enough to prevent a work stoppage.

The NBA commissioner acknowledged Tuesday it will be “a challenge” to reach a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement before the current one expires in a month.

“The question is whether the owners and the players will be bold enough to do what has to be done here to keep this sport on the track that it is on now, which is straight up,” Stern said during his annual news conference before Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Owners are seeking major financial changes to the deal that expires June 30. Without an agreement, the owners could then lock out the players.

The sides already planned to sit down twice when the series moves to Dallas, and Stern said Tuesday groups from both negotiating committees will be in Miami today for what he called a “full-blown” bargaining session.

“We told the players and the owners to bring their negotiating talents to South Beach,” Stern said, poking fun at the line LeBron James used when he announced he was leaving Cleveland as a free agent last summer.

Both sides insist they want to avoid a situation similar to the NFL’s, which is being carried out through the court system — though the players did file a charge against the NBA with the National Labor Relations Board last week for unfair bargaining practices.

So Stern said the key is continued meetings before the deadline, some in small groups and others with more voices in the room.

“I know that both sides will make their best offers before the lockout, because if they don’t, then there’s going to be a lockout that would be destructive to our business from the owners’ perspective and the players’ perspective,” Stern said. “So that’s why we’ve scheduled these sessions, and we’ll schedule more.”