NBA owners, players swap proposals

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NBA owners, players swap proposals

Published: 22 Jun. 2011, 20:26

NEW YORK - Saying it reflects a “desire to go as far as we can to avoid a lockout,’’ NBA Commissioner David Stern revealed Tuesday that owners have moved off their insistence on a hard salary cap.

Players don’t see it that way.

So it appears the cap system remains the biggest obstacle to a new collective bargaining agreement before the rapidly approaching June 30 deadline.

Stern said the league has proposed a “flex cap,’’ in which teams would target a uniform dollar amount to spend, but would still be permitted to exceed it up to an unspecified level. Players argue it’s still a hard cap, because the ceiling would eventually kick in.

So even though both sides felt there was progress in what Stern had said was an important day in these negotiations, a sizable gap remains.

“At this point we’re still just really far apart on the largest issue of hard salary cap, and still some economic issues as well,’’ said players’ association president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Calling it “virtually the best shot we think we have’’ to avoid a work stoppage, Stern said the owners’ proposal would ensure that players’ total compensation would never fall below $2 billion a year in a 10-year contract, slightly less than the league paid this season.

He said the average player salary would be about $5 million and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said the goal would be an eventual 50-50 split of basketball revenues. The players are currently guaranteed 57 percent.

Though Stern refused to call this his last offer, he said the “cupboard is getting barer and barer.’’

“It’s all out there,’’ he said. “The owners to a person feel that this is what we have to give.’’

The flex cap offer had previously been proposed to the players, but had not been disclosed publicly until Tuesday. According to Stern, teams would be targeted to spend approximately $62 million, with the option to spend above through certain exceptions before reaching a limit they could not exceed.

Under the current soft salary cap, teams can use various exceptions to exceed the cap, with the penalty of a dollar for dollar luxury tax once they reach the threshold. The cap this year was $58 million, and the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks, under big-spending owner Mark Cuban, blew well past the tax level of $70 million.

The union made a proposal that offered more than $500 million in player salary reductions over the life of a five-year contract, a person with knowledge of the proposal told The Associated Press. The person, who requested anonymity because the details were not released, said the reductions would be made by slicing the players’ guarantee from its current 57 percent to 54.3 percent.

AP