National Basketball Association

Report: NBA to cancel more games

Published Oct. 24, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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The NBA will on Tuesday announce that at least two more weeks of the season will be canceled, after labor talks broke down last week, the New York Daily News reported, citing a source.

NBA commissioner David Stern already canceled the first two weeks of the season, which was scheduled to begin Nov. 1, and that is now expected to be extended through Nov. 28, accounting for 102 more games.

The first cancellation, announced Oct. 10, totaled 100 games.

The report said there is a "feeling" that the league can still reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement in time to save the Christmas Day games — traditionally the first big games of the season — even though Stern had said that they would likely be canceled if no deal was reached by last Tuesday.

After a three-day federal mediation session, the NBA owners and players announced Thursday that labor talks had broken down and that no further meetings were scheduled.

NBA players reportedly want to resume the talks but will not agree to the owners' precondition of accepting a 50-50 split of the league's $4 billion in revenue to allow for that to happen.

The NBA has insisted it will not budge beyond a 50-50 split of basketball-related income (BRI), while the players, who were guaranteed 57 percent in the previous labor deal, have refused to drop below 53 percent in the new deal.

NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said the union had lowered its offer to 52.5 percent of BRI Thursday, while owners were continuing to stick to the 50-50 split.

The two sides also remain far apart on system issues, like salary cap structure and contract lengths.