At a Board of Governors meeting Wednesday in New York, Stern said the NBA has no intention of locking its players out when the season gets under way Nov. 4.
Players Association Director Charles Grantham replied, "No one wants a strike,'' and pronounced himself "cautiously optimistic.''
NBA players are thought to be dovish on the whole thing. The Chicago Bulls haven't even had a player representative for two seasons, and there have been reports that several other stars want no part of a strike.
One is Orlando Magic star Shaquille O'Neal. His agent, Leonard Armato, said he'd hate to see his multimillionaire client wearing one of those "Unfair to the Working Man'' sandwich boards.
"It's difficult for me to see why a strike would be better than continuing to negotiate or utilizing the court system,'' Armato said.
The NBA owners convened their meeting Wednesday in a crisis atmosphere verging on hysteria. Last week, union president Buck Williams, reacting to the lockout talk, said if the owners didn't bar the doors, the players might strike. Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported the NBA had set a Nov. 15 deadline for a lockout. Wednesday, Stern denied everything.
"We have never had a strike and never had a lockout,'' he said. "Those particular weapons have never been called into action. We haven't and we don't plan to.''
The NBA is insisting on the salary cap and the draft and has additionally asked for a "rookie cap'' to limit the contracts of first-year players. The league Wednesday also adopted a host of rules changes designed to promote more outside shooting, less obstruction in the backcourt and less fighting. The owners were addressing concerns that the game was being dominated by defense and overly physical play. Last season, neither the Houston Rockets nor the New York Knicks reached 100 points in the seven-game NBA Finals.
The most notable change is moving the 3-point line to a uniform 22 feet, bringing it in by 21 inches beyond the top of the key. Under another rule change, a player fouled while taking a 3-pointer will get three free throws.
(LAT, AP)
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