Report: Players were led to believe breakthrough was near

Before last week’s big meeting on Tuesday, there was a lot of optimism in the air — plenty of people were suggesting a labor deal could be close (whether they meant to tweet it or not).

Then Tuesday broke up with both sides disappointed. The players agreed to drop their share of basketball related income to 52 or 53 percent (down from 57 percent in the old deal) but the owners wanted that AND a hard salary cap. Or at least enough of them did for Stern to say Thursday after a Board of Governors meeting that the owners were unified behind a hard cap. The players remain united against that.

A report from David Aldridge of NBA.com said the players were led to believe that the concession they made was going to be a huge breakthrough.

But two sources who have been briefed on the talks indicated the following: sometime during the last of the small sessions between the two sides in New York, on Sept. 7 and 8, the union made its 53 percent concept to the owners. After the proposal was made, according to the sources, the union believed it had assurances from the other side that the offer would be viewed favorably by the owners’ Labor Relations Committee. That was the basis of player optimism -- including union executive committee member Roger Mason’s infamous “looks like a season” tweet a few days later. And that’s why the union was so crestfallen on Sept. 13, when the meeting with each side’s full negotiating committees failed to produce a breakthrough.

If the hard cap is mandatory, we are in for a long lockout. The owners may be able to get another percentage point or two off the BRI, but that with a hard cap is asking a lot of the players. Still, it seems like a lot of owners want it, including big market ones.

Training camps are supposed to open the first couple days of October, with the first games Oct. 9. To show you how much everyone expects that to happen, the Drew and Goodman leagues scheduled their rematch for Oct. 9. If the season is going to start close to on time, the two sides need to reach a deal in the next couple of weeks.