NBA Makes New Proposal

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 29, 1998 / 12:19 AM EDT / CBS Sportsline

The new collective bargaining proposal from NBA owners looks almost exactly like their last offer, according to the players union.

"We're still trying to find out where they moved off their last proposal," union director Billy Hunter said Friday after the document arrived at the office of the National Basketball Players Association.

"Generally, it still deals with a hard salary cap. They have not moved or retreated from their position."

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It was the first formal offer made by the owners since May 27.

The union will prepare a detailed response to be presented to the owners Tuesday, said Hunter, who would not reveal the specifics of the proposal.

League officials did not comment on the proposal, but if it really looks like the last one then it calls for a four-year phase out of the Larry Bird exception and an absolute limit to the amount of basketball-related income (BRI) that can be paid toward player salaries.

Player payroll costs now account for 57 percent of BRI. In the owners' May 27 proposal, they asked that the percentage be scaled back over four years to 48 percent. The owners had the right to seek a new collective bargaining agreement once BRI rose above 51.8 percent.

A new agreement would have to be in place by the second week of October at the latest in order to save the 82-game regular season.

The league has already canceled some exhibition games and postponed the start of training camps indefinitely, and players have been told to expect the lockout to extend into December -- or longer.

The players made their last proposal Aug. 6, and the owners responded by storming out of the room. The sides have held only one brief sit-down meeting since then to discuss moving the process forward.

The union's position all summer has been that there is no need to hold further bargaining sessions if the owners continue to insist on a hard salary cap and a phase out of the Bird exception. It's unclear if that stance changed at all during a meeting Thursday othe union's Executive Council including some 15 players.

"We will submit a comprehensive response and maybe a counterproposal," Hunter said. "I don't want to discuss it any more until I've had a chance to give my response to them first."