Labor talks continue after little progress
NEW YORK – NBA owners and players have resumed their labor negotiations with a federal mediator on Wednesday following a 16-hour session that generated minimal progress, a league source involved in the talks told Yahoo! Sports.
The league and players union emerged from their longest labor meeting of the 111-day lockout early Wednesday morning "still not anywhere near a deal," a league source said. Representatives from both sides refused to comment publicly on the nature of talks, citing a gag order from mediator George Cohen.
Asked if the sides had closed any gaps between them, a source in the meeting told Y! Sports: "On small stuff. Hard to see where this is going."
[Video: Stern, owners 'haven't done anything' to end NBA lockout]
Nevertheless, the two sides returned to a Manhattan hotel to continue talks at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday. NBA commissioner David Stern left Tuesday's meeting – which began about 10 a.m. and stretched past 2 a.m. Wednesday – without making any additional cancellations to the league's 2011-12 schedule. Stern had previously said the owners wouldn't be available to participate in negotiations after Tuesday because of scheduled league board meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.
During a media tour last week, Stern also said he would consider canceling more games – possibly through Christmas – if a new labor agreement wasn't reached by Tuesday. The league has already canceled the first two weeks of the season, which was scheduled to begin Nov. 1.
[Related: NBA rank-and-file fine with missing games]
The two biggest obstacles to an agreement have been the league's insistence on escalating taxes and penalties for teams that exceed the salary cap, and the split of revenue between owners and players.
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