Billy Hunter Wants CBA Resolution By All-Star Break

The Players’ Association and owners had another “cordial and productive” meeting yesterday, and Hunter came out with something of a deadline for both sides. From CBS: “After a three-hour bargaining session with NBA owners Wednesday, complete with a reportedly off-key rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to recognize commissioner David Stern’s 68th, players union chief Billy Hunter set forth the first unofficial negotiating deadline for making progress toward a new labor deal: All-Star weekend in Los Angeles. If the owners and players aren’t able to ‘develop some momentum’ and ‘resolve some of the issues’ by February, Hunter said, ‘We’ll know what the bottom line’s going to be.’ Both sides know that bottom line will be a lockout, the first the league has experienced since the only failed labor negotiation in NBA history in 1998. ‘I would anticipate that by All-Star, we should know whether there’s a likelihood of a deal,’ Hunter said outside the Omni Berkshire Place hotel, where owners and players conducted their second bargaining session in six weeks. As was the case Aug. 12, the meeting was characterized as ‘cordial and productive’ by union attorney Jeffrey Kessler and others, with Hunter going so far as to call the talks ‘amicable.’ Still, there were no significant breakthroughs on how to arrive at a new agreement that both sides would be willing to sign to forestall a work stoppage after the 2010-11 season. The current CBA expires on June 30, 2011.”