NBA

NBA negotiations at standstill at pivotal time

The negotiating freeze between the Players Association and the NBA became even frostier yesterday — with commissioner David Stern’s edict to cancel the regular season’s first two weeks on Monday now looking like a certainty.

Stern made an inquiry to re-ignite talks tomorrow but was rejected. Talks broke off badly on “Black Tuesday,” when union director Billy Hunter said the sides may not meet again for “a month or two.”

Realizing the stalemate on the revenue split, Stern was interested in meeting with the union to discuss “the system” issues still not resolved regarding the salary cap. But, according to the NBA, the union only wanted to meet if the discussion was about the revenue split.

“We told the union today that we were willing to meet as early as Sunday,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said last night in a statement. “We also advised them that we were unwilling to move above the 50-50 split of revenues that was discussed between the parties on Tuesday, but that we wanted to meet with them to discuss the many remaining open issues. The union declined.”

Hunter will meet today in Miami with players competing in tonight’s South Florida All-Star Classic. He plans to meet with more players in Los Angeles on Monday.

The union claimed yesterday the NBA only wanted to meet if the players agreed first to accept the 50-50 split. On Tuesday, Stern made an informal proposal about a 50-50 revenue split — a huge increase from its formal offer of 47 percent. The players are stuck on a 53 percent take. The last CBA had the players at 57 percent.

Each percentage point is worth $40 million. Hence, the divide is at least $120 million. Some believe the owners will actually reject Stern’s 50-50 informal offer to players.