PRAYERS WERE OFFERED BUT ..

.. evidently, seems not enough.
NBA owners and players continue
discussions. And this means no games
for us spectators to see. All
the periphery basketball incomes
that ordinarily would be coming in
are also being placed "on hold".
parking attendants, security guards,
eatery concessions, t-shirt sales,
etc., not to mention that the entire
basketball players teams are not receiving
paychecks. Negotiators for both
sides met for more than 5 hours on Sunday
before breaking for the night. Neither side
offered many details although union officials
confirmed they had scrapped a planned
meeting with membership in Los Angeles so
instead, remained in New York. David Stern
and Adam Silver, deputy commissioner, along
with Peter Holt of San Antonio, Glen Taylor
of Minnesota and senior vice president & deputy
general counsel Dan Rube, met with the union
executive director Billy Hunter, Derek Fisher,
president of the Lakers & vice president Maurice
Evans of the Washington Wizards plus attorneys
Jeffrey Kessler and Ron Klempner before the
L.A. regional meeting took place in L.A.
As of right now however, there is a work stoppage.
NBA Commissioner David Stern canceled the first
two weeks of this season after players and the
owners were unable to reach a new labor deal
to end the lockout. With every day that goes by,
Stern said, I think we need to look at further
reductions to what is left of the season.
This then is the first work stoppage since the
1998-99 season was reduced to playing only 50 games.
With another work stoppage, the NBA risks
alienating a fan base that sent the league's
revenues and TV ratings soaring during the 2010-11
season. The cost of cancellations would be
staggering, Deputy commissioner Adam Silver said.
The league would lose hundreds of millions of
dollars, while union executive director Billy Hunter
estimated players' losses at $350 million for each
month that they were locked out. Hunter did say that
he didn't think the full season was in jeopardy yet
and stressed it would be a mistake for the NBA to
risk it coming off a season when revenues and T.V.
ratings had soared as they had. To kill the entire
season would be foolish as it really is the very
best season in history of the NBA and to lose our
audience would be a shame with our economy as it
is today, most feel. This is because it
did take quite a while to recover from the '98
lockout and could be even longer to recover for
this time around.
And so dear friends - the waiting game continues!
Babs Wells