National Basketball Association

NBA owners, players disagree on major issues

Published Jun. 30, 2011 11:30 p.m. ET

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Unable to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, the NBA will lock out its players beginning at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday. The owners and players remained far apart on just about every major issue, from salaries to the salary cap, revenues to revenue sharing.

Where they differed:

- Salaries: In their initial proposal in 2010, owners wanted to reduce player salary costs by about $750 million annually. In their most recent proposal, the league offered a 10-year deal in which total player compensation would never dip below $2 billion annually over the life of the deal, but players said that would be a pay cut because they were paid more than $2.1 billion this season in salaries and benefits.

Players had proposed reducing their salaries by $500 million over five years, which Commissioner David Stern called a ''modest'' offer.

- Salary cap: In their initial proposal in 2010, the owners called for a hard salary cap system. They switched to a ''flex'' cap, where each team would be targeted to spend $62 million, but could exceed that through the use of various exceptions. But players considered that a hard cap because there is an eventual unspecified ceiling that can't be exceeded.

- Division of revenues: Owners wanted a reduction in the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenues. Players proposed 54.3 percent but said the league's offer would have them down to around 40 percent.

- Revenue sharing: Players said the league can address their losses by enhanced revenue sharing among teams and argued that should be part of a new CBA. Owners said there will be a more robust revenue-sharing package but not until a new deal as they would only be sharing losses under the current system.

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