Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090078
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
In announcing the deal, commissioner David Stern said passage would allow the 1995-96 season to start on time.
The proposal eliminates the so-called ``luxury tax,'' a sticking point with players in an earlier agreement, and includes a $1 million exception allowing teams over the salary cap to sign free agents.
``We're very happy the NBA met our concerns,'' said Portland forward Buck Williams, president of the union, during a news conference. ``We feel very fortunate that we could work out an agreement at five minutes, 10 minutes before midnight.''
A lockout has been in effect since July 1, and the talks were a last-ditch effort to forge a new agreement before the union relinquished its authority as the players' bargaining agent, a step union leadership said it would take by midnight unless there was an agreement.
Twenty-five players attended the meeting at a midtown hotel, including Utah's John Stockton and John Crotty, Phoenix's Danny Manning, Dallas' Jimmy Jackson and Cleveland's Mark Price. About 90 minutes after the players went behind closed doors, NBA officials came to the hotel, and Stern arrived a short time later.
The vote on the new deal will be held along with a previously scheduled vote on decertification of the union. Players will either vote to ratify the deal or to dissolve the union, said Simon Gourdine, the union's executive director.
``We know there's still a lot of work to be done and there are players who want to know what the deal is,'' Gourdine said. ``We have to let them know it's a contract worthy of their support.''
Talks between the sides broke off a week ago after the league made several counterproposals to the players' wish to abolish the luxury-tax provision.
Before going into the players-only meeting, Gourdine said informal contacts with the league had been ``somewhat positive.''
The sides reached an agreement in principle in June, but it was derailed when Chicago's Michael Jordan and New York's Patrick Ewing, displeased with the proposed deal and with the union leadership, advocated dissolving the union. Approximately 200 players signed petitions, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, saying they no longer wished to be represented by the players' association.
The NLRB has called for a decertification election Aug.30 and Sept.7.
Should the players vote to decertify rather than to accept the new contract, it would clear the way for an antitrust lawsuit filed against the league by Jordan, Ewing and 14 other players, including Crotty, a former Virginia standout. The suit seeks to abolish the salary cap and the college draft.
by CNB