Lockout Could Be Over In 24 Hours

Rather than speaking to each other, Russ Granik and Billy Hunter stated their cases separately Tuesday and discussed the details of the NBA lockout, agreeing on one thing -- a deal can be reached in less than 24 hours.

The hard part, as it has been for the entire 5 1/2-month-old ordeal, will be getting to that point.

The chief negotiators from each side spoke at their respective offices for about an hour apiece with The Associated Press, spelling out the movement they have made, discussing where the deal currently stands and stating what they need from the other side to reach closure.

"They're not going to blow up the season. We're too close," Hunter said. "They'd have to be deranged."

Granik, as always, was the most pessimistic of the two.

"They're speaking Chinese, we're speaking Greek," he said.

Although conciliatory statements were hard to come by, both men admitted they are closer than previously disclosed on the main factor separating them - the percentage of revenues that will be devoted to salaries. The owners, who have asked that the percentage be cut to 52 percent, have told the players they are willing to go higher. The players, who previously said they'd never drop below 57 percent, now say they'll go to 56.5.

The middle ground might be closer than ever, but each side wants one more major move from the other.

The league wants an absolute maximum salary for all players based upon years of service, and the union has offered such a limit - but only for players with less than seven years of experience.

"After backing off the hard cap, that's the one we need," Granik said.

The union, meanwhile, wants two additional salay cap exceptions to boost the number of players in the so-called "middle class," as well as increased minimum salaries for veterans.

The league has proposed limiting the maximum player salary to a percentage of the salary cap. Players with less than seven years in the league could get about $8 million in the first year of a new contract, players in years 7-9 could get about $10 million and players with at least 10 years could get $12 million.

The union has offered a $10 million limit for players in years 1-7, and a luxury tax for other players if their contracts started above $15 million.

"I'm not going to give up my high-end guys and then start negotiating from there," Hunter said, explaining why he didn't offer a bigger compromise at last Saturday's bargaining session.

The league has offered increased minimums - although not as high as the union would like - and has already agreed to one of the exceptions, the "average salary" exception. The league also has taken its proposed timing rules changes, which would restrict free agency movement, off the table.

On the other points of contention - the length of a rookie scale, the maximum annual raise, player conduct rules - the differences could be settled without much fuss. That's why Granik and Hunter agreed that a deal could be reached in less that 24 hours.

But perhaps the biggest hurdle facing the union director and the deputy commissioner is the atmosphere of mistrust in that neither wants to make a move for fear the other won't reciprocate.

"We want to pay less, they want us to pay more," Granik said. "Just making the system more complex doesn't help."

Maybe not. But a more complex system is what the sides will have to end up with if they want to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement and end the lockout that has wiped out the first 21/2 months of the season.

Both sides also outlined how they had already addressed the other's "Holy Grail" issues.

When the lockout began July 1, the union said it would not accept a hard salary cap or the elimination of the Larry Bird exception. The league has yielded on both issues.

The league, in turn, said it needed cost certainty and wanted to prevent players like Kevin Garnett, who had been in the league for only two years, from receiving a contract extension worth $126 million.

The union complied by agreeing to a maximum salary for less-tenured players and a complicated escrow tax system under which players would forfeit up 10 percent of their paychecks if the amount of revenues devoted to salaries exceeded a defined percentage.

So, again, the $2 billion question becomes: What will that percentage be?

The answer might be found in the only query both men refused to answer Tuesday: What's wrong with 55?

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