Distance remains in goal toward labor agreement

— -- TROY, Mich. -- There won't be a lockout in the NBA this summer if there are only three issues left for owners and players to resolve, union director Billy Hunter said. The problem, however, is that the opposing sides do not even agree on how many items are still in dispute. Hunter traveled to the media headquarters hotel Wednesday on an off day in the NBA Finals to state the players' position regarding the stalled collective bargaining talks, saying he surmised from commissioner David Stern's public comments last Sunday that only three issues remain -- an age limit for rookies, a tougher drug-testing program and the maximum length of long-term contracts. "I'm going to hold him to his word, and I'm going to assume that all those other concessions they've talked about are no longer on the table," Hunter said. But NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik said Hunter's assumption was incorrect. "That's almost a silly suggestion that anything's been taken off the table. Those were merely three critical non-economic issues that we said we needed to have. That was the point there," Granik told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. So, with only 15 days left until the current seven-year labor agreement expires, the sides cannot even agree on where they stand in regards to what's left to be negotiated. Not only that, but there are no new talks scheduled. "At the last bargaining session, they walked out on us," Hunter said. "Their comment was we'll get back to you, and I haven't heard from anyone." The union will hold its annual meeting in Las Vegas on June 27, and it seems unlikely that the sides will hold any substantive discussions before then. The current agreement expires June 30, and both sides have predicted that if there is a lockout, it'll be a long one. "It would be a death knell for the NBA," Hunter said. Owners are known to be seeking several changes to current rules, including a new luxury tax (dubbed a "supertax") for the highest spending teams, reductions in the size of annual salary increases in long-term contracts, a shortened rookie wage scale and adjustments to the so-called trigger percentages that activate the escrow and luxury taxes designed to curtail spending on player salaries. Stern did not reference those items when he addressed the media prior to Game 2 of the finals, though he did go into detail about where the owners stand on the other items. He said the league wants the minimum age raised to 19, the maximum contract length reduced from seven years to six, and an anti-drug agreement that would call for veterans to be tested year-round. Currently, veterans are tested only once per year, during training camp. "We weren't attempting to negotiate every point through the media," Granik said. "We were trying to explain why it wouldn't be suitable to keep the same deal. That was the point we were making, not that those were the only issues." Hunter said he will not engage in unilateral concessions, but his answer when asked what he would want in return -- an extension of the old deal -- only seemed to confuse the matter more. The owners have already rejected Hunter's offer to extend the current deal. Unless Stern can figure out what would make for an acceptable trade-off, the likelihood of another work stoppage would seem to be high. The owners locked out the players in July, 1998, after the last agreement expired, and it took 7½ months for the sides to reach an agreement. "I'm going to call David one more time between now and June 30," Hunter said.