Deal In Works To Resume NBA Play On Christmas Day
NEW YORK (CBS) - If all goes smoothly, the season likely will open with the three marquee matchups it was intended to -- albeit 55 days behind schedule. The original opening day slate was Boston-New York, Miami-Dallas and Chicago-Lakers. All-Star weekend in Orlando will go off as scheduled, and the NBA Finals will be pushed back about a week.
"We're excited to bring NBA basketball back," Stern said.
The talks got back on track this week after the players rejected the owners' most recent ultimatum on Nov. 10, dissolved the union four days later and filed a series of antitrust lawsuits against the owners that threatened to produce a $6 billion damages judgment if the entire season were lost. But neither side wanted to litigate the dispute to its conclusion in the courts, which would've cost not only the season, but years of lawyering and untold destruction of fan interest.
"The lawyers will handle a lot of the heavy lifting," union president Derek Fisher said. "For myself, it's great to be a part of this particular moment in terms of giving our fans what it is that they so badly wanted and want to see."
Since the talks took on the format of a litigation settlement and seemed to have exhausted all avenues with the existing rosters of negotiators, they needed a voice of reason to guide them. In stepped attorney Jim Quinn, the former NBPA outside counsel who played a pivotal role in ending the 1998-99 lockout on the even of Stern's deadline to cancel the entire season.
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