NBA lockout is officially on

[Dpantherman]

WojYahooNBA (Adrian Wojnarowski)

Meeting is over, and lockout will start at 12:01 AM.

Union player rep Matt Bonner: "We tried to avoid a lockout...Unfortunately we could not reach a deal."

Billy Hunter says the union made a new proposal today.

https://twitter.com/#!/WojYahooNBA

[pantherfan49]

Has to be done. Player salaries are way out of control and don't match economic realities.

How about a real fugging salary cap for a change?

[cdandi1]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6723645

NEW YORK -- NBA players are locked out, possibly jeopardizing next season.

Union chief Billy Hunter said Thursday afternoon that owners had locked out the players after failing to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

With this latest action, two of four major professional sports in the United States are locked out. The NFL locked out its players in March, and the two sides have been in discussions this week, trying to work toward a new deal.

Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the NBA and its players could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. The CBA was due to expire at midnight.

Hunter said the union made a "moderate" new financial proposal, but it wasn't enough to keep the two sides at the bargaining table.

Hunter said the two sides plan to meet again in the next two to three weeks.

All league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday, and games eventually could be lost, too. The last lockout reduced the 1998-99 season to just a 50-game schedule, the only time the NBA missed games for a work stoppage.

"We tried to avoid the lockout; unfortunately, we couldn't reach a deal," union executive committee member Matt Bonner said.

The sides remained far apart on just about every major issue, from salaries to the salary cap, revenues to revenue sharing.

Players, who previously offered to reduce their salaries by $500 million over five years, considered the owners' proposal for a "flex" cap, where each team would be targeted to spend $62 million, a hard cap. Although the league said total player compensation would never dip below $2 billion over the life of its proposed 10-year deal, that would amount to a pay cut for the players, who were paid more than $2.1 billion this season in salaries and benefits.

Owners also wanted a reduction in the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenues.

[4Corners]

American sports..........IT'S FANNNNNNNNNNTASTIC

[tarheelblue89]

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

wait a minute

[Get_on_my_horse]

Just when i started to give an f about nba/bobcats....

thanks a lot!

[pantherfan49]

This is good news for the Bobcats. Short term it sucks, but trust me this is good for the future of NBA ball in Charlotte.

[4Corners]

in other news, crime just went up

[Stroupe-a-loop]

Yeah, this is going to long and ugly. The NFL lockout ain't got poo on this one.

[Dpantherman]

WojYahooNBA

The union's revised proposal to NBA today called for $600 million in givebacks to league over a 6-year deal, league source tells Y!

Owners want a 10 year deal; the union had countered with five. The union pushed it to 6 years today, but owners want far more givebacks.

[mav1234]

did the NBA owners release financial information showing hardship? I had thought they did, but I coulda been mistaken.

shitty situation, was just starting to get into basketball again.

[pantherfan49]

Several NBA teams are losing a ton of money. I think the league as a whole lost 300 million last year.

[tarheelpride]

It's needed. I want more parity than anything else. Sick of seeing the same teams year in and year out in contention and everyone else not able to reach that level

[Its The Milk]

These lockouts are so frustrating. I don't really understand the players complaints in either of them. They get paid in 1 game what people strive years for. I wish they would just realize that the league they love, in relation to the NBA, is losing money and might not be playing this year.