The NBA Season At Risk

With Mike Pesca in for Tom Ashbrook

NBA season in jeopardy after union rejects deal. We’ll have the latest.

If you thought a 1-3-1 trapping zone was complex, consider a disclaimer of interest or union decertification. These terms are being floated instead of running jumpers in the lane. The schedule says we should all be calling into sports radio marveling at about Rondo’s handle, Durant’s wingspan and how Kobe getting all the calls.

Instead, the existential question grows more legitimate: Will there be an NBA Season? And what of the arena workers, the business, the smaller NBA cities- they’re getting none of the hoop and all of the harm.

This hour, On Point: NBA — No Basketball Anticipated.
-Mike Pesca

Ian Thomsen, senior writer for Sports Illustrated.

Gabe Feldman, the Director of the Tulane Sports Law Program and the Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance at Tulane University.

Mick Cornett, mayor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The New York Times "Faced with a deal it could not accept, and a negotiating process that had reached a dead end, the National Basketball Players Association elected to disband Monday afternoon, thrusting the N.B.A. into chaos. The prospect of reviving the 2011-12 season now rests with the courts."

Sports Illustrated "The final offer comes amid a swelling movement among the players to pursue decertification. They had been hoping to force the owners to compromise in negotiations by threatening to take the union's case to court."

The Oklahoman "Cornett played a prominent role in helping the city lure an NBA franchise, but he has maintained a low profile throughout the league's 111-day lockout. However, he is still paying close attention to negotiations between the owners and players."

ESPN "Hunter said the NBPA was in the process of converting to a trade association and that all players will be represented in a class-action suit against the NBA by attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and David Boies — who were on opposite sides of the NFL labor dispute, Kessler working for the players, Boise for the league."