Re: BREAKING NEWS, US: NBA Owners Lock Out Players
conclusion....
"The league has no interest in getting a deal done," said Mark Bartlestein, an NBA agent who represents the Jazz’s Gordon Hayward, among others. "I don’t see how Billy Hunter can even keep meeting. The route the NBA has taken has been very disappointing. … I laughed when the league made its proposal. It was insulting and a non-starter."
Facing a shrinking window and lacking momentum, sides attempted to find middle ground and avoid the league’s first work stoppage since 1998-99. That lockout produced a shortened 50-game campaign, with a new deal struck only one day before a drop-dead date that would have canceled the entire season.
The NBA has only had one other lockout in its 65-year existence. A 1995 work stoppage altered the CBA but did not result in lost games.
"[The NBA] is such a great deal for all of us," Stockton said. "But when we forget that — and when the owners and the players forget — that’s when the problems arise."
Everyone from league scouts to Jazz employees could be affected by the 2011 lockout.
Salt Lake City parking lot manager Jeff Gordon has been hoping for a year that a work stoppage would be averted. Now, the day has arrived.
"I could just tell that the two sides were too far apart," said Gordon, a victim of the 1998-99 lockout whose business, J. Event Parking, has expanded to include about 500 parking stalls in six downtown lots, including the large lot directly south of EnergySolutions Arena.
"Back in ‘98, I didn’t have as many properties as I do now so it didn’t affect me as much. But now I have a family and a couple of kids. It sucks a lot," Gordon said. "We were already having a down year, with the economy and the Jazz not making the playoffs for the first time in years. It didn’t allow us to build up much of a savings. A lot of properties in the area would have loved to build up more of a reserve before the lockout."
Reporters Steve Luhm and Mike Gorrell contributed to this story.
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