NBA, Player’s meet! Will it be- Lockout Los Angeles?

With the current CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] due to expire in 30th June this year, the headlines regarding Lockout Los Angeles has grabbed all the eyeballs. Representatives from National Basketball Association [NBA] and Players association convened a meeting on 25th Feb in Los Angeles for two hours, to discuss a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The discussions have been taking place since last one year, without much progress. Even this meeting did not prove to be very fruitful and is on the verge of being labeled as Lockout Los Angeles. But it lacked the bitterness that prevailed at the last meeting.

The Meeting in Los Angeles
There has been mixed opinions regarding the meeting. As per Billy Hunter, Player’s Union executive, "I think it's going to be difficult to achieve a deal between now and June 30," but he also added that "The meeting was somewhat amicable".

Both the parties have made progress of the sense that they have agreed to open the lines of communication between them for the remaining season and also, no new impediment came to the forefront in the meeting. But any agreement regarding the new CBA is a far dream.

Reason For Stalemate
The Lockout Los Angeles situation has been due to the last meeting that was convened in Dallas, last February, to discuss the new CBA. The league owners are persistent on the following terms of the proposal:-

- A hard cap on the player’s salary.
- Salary rollback of $700 - $800 million per annum
- Reduction in guaranteed contracts.

As per Billy Hunter "Probably one of the biggest impediments to our getting a deal has been the demand for a hard salary cap, We have indicated that we just don't see any way possible for us to accept that. We honestly have concerns about the elimination of guaranteed contracts and the suppression and reduction of the cap. We're not prepared to swallow that."As per the player’s association every team and the players can individually work out what they want to put in the contract. There is no need for a blanket rule covering all teams and players. To which the owners disagree, making Lockout Los Angeles not very far off.

Is There A Way Out
As per the owners they expect a loss of around $350 million this year. And so they are persistent on a hard salary cap to balance the scales. But as per players the best way to improve the weak and struggling franchise is to change how an NBA draft is made and bring in more talent in the teams. Bad contracts are a result of overpayment made to marginal players which leads to red balance sheet. Hence as per the players association, the burden of owners’ inability to take the right decision should not be placed on the player's shoulders.

However, the owners of the teams are wealthy and not completely dependent on earnings only from the basketball franchises. So they do have an upper hand and do not need to bend. On the other hand players heavily depend on the earnings from NBA season and any stoppage will hurt their pockets badly. So maybe Lockout Los Angeles can be avoided with concessions from the players. Now the question is HOW MUCH?