Lockout Leaves 100 Jobless

The NBA has lost 100 employees during the lockout and its workforce is expected to shrink even more.

The losses represent more than 10 percent of the NBA's employees. League spokesman Brian McIntyre called the reductions through attrition "significant."

"And we expect that to continue," he said. "We have a had a hiring freeze and payroll freeze since July 1."

He said those who left their jobs worked in various departments in a variety of positions. All of them, he added, left voluntarily.

McIntyre, noting commissioner David Stern has not drawn his salary during the lockout, said the number of league employees is down to 750.

Many of those employees -- some privately lamenting their job security for weeks -- planned to attend the league's Christmas party Monday at the NBA Store in Manhattan.

The store, on Fifth Avenue across from NBA headquarters, was closed to the public Monday during the afternoon -- a lockout of holiday shoppers.

After the last full bargaining session, some players said Stern ended the meeting by saying he was going back to his office to plan layoffs at the NBA office, which draws its budget from a 6 percent cut of gate receipts.

Another new twist was added to the lockout Monday as Newsweek reported some players believe race is playing a factor in negotiations.

The union's leadership and all but two of the players on the negotiating committee are black, while all the owners and the league's top two officials are white.

"I think there is a perception from the owners to even some fans that we're blacks who should be happy with what we've got -- fair or not," said Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat. "There's a lack of respect given us in large part because we're athletes. I'm not saying it's all about race because it's not - but it plays a factor.

Stern denied race is an issue and pointed out the league has successfully promoted a sport whose player population is nearly 90 percent black.

"This is a collective bargaining dispute -- no more, no less," he said.

The league and the union met Saturday for less than 30 minutes, one of their shortest meetings of the 5-month-old dispute.

Before the session, Hunter said: "What we've put on the table so far is not something they're going to be quick to run away from."

Hunter then put even more concessions on the table, but it wasn't enough. No new talks are scheduled.

The quick end to Saturday's session surprised many around the league, especially some on the ownership side who had been told after Thursday's secret negotiating session that a deal was close.

The union contingent seemed to think the same thing as it walked into Saturday's meeting, hoping the sides would make enough progress to call back the full negotiating teams Tuesday or Wednesday to perhaps close the deal.

But the league's bargaining team took a different tack, arriving in a gloom-and-doom mode.

The union's offer, which was believed to include an absolute limit on the top salary for any player with less than seven years' of experience, wasn't good enough to keep Stern at the table.

Stern has said the season will cancel itself if a deal isn't reached in the not-too-distant future. The union still thinks he is bluffing.

"No one knows what their schedule is," said union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler.

Stern insists he's serious.

"Right now it does not look good," he said.

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