Associated Press
NEW YORK ó Unable to reach a deal, NBA owners and players walked away from the table and don’t know when they will meet again.
If it’s not in the next few days, they can forget about playing 82 games.
Without an agreement by Monday, the beginning of the regular season will be canceled, and both sides will lose millions of dollars and perhaps countless fans.
“We’re ready to meet and discuss any subject anyone wants to talk about,” Commissioner David Stern said. “We’d like not to lose the first two weeks of the season, but it doesn’t look good.”
Though the financial gap closed slightly, once the players’ association said it wouldn’t entertain the idea of a 50-50 revenue split, the league canceled the remainder of the preseason Tuesday and will wipe out the first two weeks of the regular season if there is no labor agreement by Monday.
“We were not able to make the progress that we hoped we could make and we were not able to continue the negotiations,” Stern said after nearly four hours of talks between owners and players.
No further meetings are scheduled ó union executive director Billy Hunter said it could be a month or two until the next one ó making it even more likely the league will lose games to a work stoppage for the first time since 1998-99, when the season was reduced to 50 games.
TIGER
SAN MARTIN, Calif. ó When last seen at a golf tournament, Tiger Woods was leaving early from the PGA Championship after missing the cut. He didn’t qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, giving him a long break that he wasn’t expecting.
If there was an upside that day in Atlanta, Woods figured he would have “nothing to do but work on my game.”
And that’s what he did.
He showed up Wednesday at CordeValle for the Frys.com Open knowing that whatever happens over the next two or four days, it won’t be from a lack of practice.
He also has a new endorsement with Rolex. It’s the first major endorsement deal for Woods in more than two years.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
ST. LOUIS ó University of Missouri curators voted to consider leaving the Big 12 instead of committing to the troubled league for the long term.
BUCKNER BALL
NEW YORK ó The Bill Buckner ball is back in play. The prize souvenir from the 1986 World Series will go on eBay this month with a $1 million price tag, put up for auction by the Grammy-nominated songwriter who once bought it from actor Charlie Sheen.
COLLEGE HOOPS
NEW YORK ó Tennessee coach Pat Summitt will receive the Maggie Dixon Courage award when she brings her Lady Vols to the sixth annual Classic that honors the former Army coach.
NEW YORK ó St. John’s coach Steve Lavin will undergo surgery today to treat prostate cancer.
The 47-year-old Lavin, who is starting his second season with the Red Storm, announced in early April that he had been diagnosed the previous September with an early stage of the disease.