NBA and players conclude second day of mediation
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The NBA and players finished another round of lengthy talks on Wednesday, but have still not been able to put together a deal to end the lockout.
George Cohen, who serves as director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and was an early staple of NFL negotiations, again met with both sides on Wednesday and stated that the two sides will also meet on Thursday beginning at 2 p.m. (et).
The second round of talks with the federal mediator came just one day after the longest negotiating session of the lockout that saw talks start around 10 a.m. (et) and last until after midnight.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}During Wednesday's meeting, commissioner David Stern and several others left to attend a meeting of the board of governors, a meeting that had been pushed back to later on Wednesday night and Thursday morning so that the players and owners could meet on Wednesday. Talks between the NBA and the players union continued after Stern and the other had left.
Cohen had met separately with league officials and players on Monday, a week after the NBA canceled the first two weeks of the regular season in its first loss of games since 1998-99, when the schedule was reduced to 50 games because of a work stoppage.
The failure to reach a new collective bargaining agreement has so far cost the league a total of 100 games. But NBA commissioner David Stern said last week that an unsuccessful mediation session on Tuesday could put the entire season in jeopardy -- or at least the games through the popular Christmas schedule.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Among the biggest wrinkles separating the sides is a disagreement on the split of basketball-related income. They are also at odds over a hard salary cap, which the players oppose.
Besides the NFL, Cohen has also mediated disputes between Major League Soccer and the MLS players union, the Metropolitan Opera and orchestra musicians, the Federal Aviation Administration and the air traffic controllers union and the American Red Cross and a national coalition of labor unions, according to his official FMCS biography.
The NBA lockout began July 1 after the most recent labor deal between the sides expired.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Unlike the labor issues that caused the NFL lockout -- which long appeared to be solvable -- the problems facing the NBA have led observers to warn about a prolonged dispute similar to the one that led to the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season.