NBA: NBA lockout begins as sides fail to reach deal

NBA NBA NBA lockout begins as sides fail to reach deal 1 Jul 2011, 5:05 am NBA commissioner David Stern, right, and deputy commissioner Adam Silver speak to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Maurice Evans, center, of the Washington Wizards, arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players are meeting Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and seemingly nowhere close to a deal. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP San Antonio Spurs' Matt Bonner, center, arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players are meeting Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and seemingly nowhere close to a deal. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern, left, and NBA spokesperson Mike Bass arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players will meet Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, right, and NBA union chief Billy Hunter arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players will meet Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union chief Billy Hunter speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Hunter says "it's obvious the lockout will happen tonight" after players and owners failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, potentially putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. The CBA expires at midnight, after which all league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union executive committee member Matt Bonner, of the San Antonio Spurs, speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers, leaves a midtown hotel a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA union chief Billy Hunter speaks with reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NEW YORK â€" The NBA locked out its players Friday when its collective bargaining agreement expired, becoming the second pro sports league shut down by labor strife. The labor deal ended at midnight after players and owners failed to reach a new contract. The two sides remained far apart on just about every major issue, from salaries to the salary cap, revenues to revenue sharing. The long-expected lockout puts the 2011-12 season in jeopardy and comes as the NFL is trying to end its own work stoppage that began in March. It is believed to be only the second time that two leagues have been shut down simultaneously by labor problems. In 1994, the NHL and MLB were idle from October through the end of the year. The NHL locked out its players from October 1994 until mid-January 1995 and reduced the 1994-95 season from 84 games to 48. MLB endured a 232-day strike from August 12, 1994 until April 2, 1995, which led to the cancellation of the entire 1994 postseason and World Series. In a call with the labor relations committee on Thursday, Commissioner David Stern recommended that the first lockout since the 1998-99 season be imposed. "We had a great year in terms of the appreciation of our fans for our game. It just wasn't a profitable one for the owners, and it wasn't one that many of the smaller market teams particularly enjoyed or felt included in," Stern said. "The goal here has been to make the league profitable and to have a league where all 30 teams can compete." Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday and a final proposal from the players - which NBA leaders said would have raised average player salaries to $7 million in the sixth year of the deal - the sides could not close the enormous gulf between their positions. "The problem is that there's such a gap in terms of the numbers, where they are and where we are, and we just can't find any way to bridge that gap," union chief Billy Hunter said. All league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday. The NBA's summer league in Las Vegas already has been canceled, preseason games in Europe were never scheduled, and players might have to decide if they want to risk playing in this summer's Olympic qualifying tournaments without the NBA's help in securing insurance in case of injury. And teams will be prohibited from having any contact with their players, most of whom won't be paid until a deal is done but insist they'll hang in anyway. "We're going to stand up for what we have to do, no matter how long it's going to take," Thunder star Kevin Durant told The Associated Press. "No matter how long the lockout's going to take, we're going to stand up. We're not going to give in." The lockout comes exactly one year after one of the NBA's most anticipated days in recent years, when Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and the rest of the celebrated class of 2010 became free agents. That free agency bonanza - highlight by the James, Wade, Chris Bosh trio in Miami - got the league started on a season where ticket and merchandise sales, ratings and buzz were all up. That weakened the owners' case that the system was broken beyond repair, but it also demonstrated why they wanted changes, with Stern saying owners feel pressured to spend as much as possible to prove their commitment to winning to fans. The last lockout reduced the 1998-99 season to just a 50-game schedule, the only time the NBA missed games for a work stoppage. Hunter said it's too early to be concerned about that. "I hope it doesn't come down to that," he said. "Obviously, the clock is now running with regard to whether or not there will or will be a loss of games, and so I'm hoping that over the next month or so that there will be sort of a softening on their side and maybe we have to soften our position as well." The NBA appeared headed this route from the start of negotiations. Owners said they lost hundreds of millions in every season of this CBA, ratified in 2005. League officials said 22 of the 30 teams would lose money. So they took a hard-line stance from the start, with their initial proposal in 2010 calling for a hard salary cap system, reducing contract lengths and eliminating contract guarantees, as well as reducing player salary costs by about $750 million annually. Though the proposal was withdrawn after a contentious meeting with players at the 2010 All-Star weekend, the league never moved from its wish list until recently, and Hunter said he believes negotiations never recovered from that rocky beginning. The union had previously filed an unfair labor charge against the league with the National Labor Relations Board for unfair bargaining practices, complaining the NBA's goal was to avoid meaningful negotiation until a lockout was in place. Despite frequent meetings this month, the sides just didn't make much progress. Owners want to reduce the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenue and weren't moved by the players' offer to drop it to 54.3 percent - though players said that would have cut their salaries by $500 million over five years. They sparred over the league's characterization of its "flex" salary cap proposal - players considered it a hard cap, which they oppose - and any chance of a last-minute deal was quickly lost Thursday when league officials said the union's move was in the wrong direction financially. "I don't think we're closer; in fact it worries me that we're not closer. We have a huge philosophical divide," Stern said. Hunter said he hopes the two sides will meet again in the next two weeks, after the union has looked at some additional documents it requested. The players' association seems unlikely, at least for now, to follow the NFLPA's model by decertifying and taking the battle into the court system, instead choosing to continue negotiations. Hunter said last week he felt owners believe the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, which is debating the legality of the NFL's lockout, will uphold employers' rights to impose lockouts. "We'll just continue to ask our fans to stick with us and remain patient with us. As players we want to play. That's who we are; we're basketball players," Lakers guard and union president Derek Fisher said. "Right now we're faced with dealing with the business aspect of our game. We're going to do it the same way we play basketball. We're going to work hard. We're going to be focused. We're going to be dedicated to getting the results that we want." About 90 percent of NBA players get paid from Nov. 15 through April 30, so they won't be missing checks for a while. But Stern has warned that the offers only get worse once a lockout starts, so the league could try to push through elements of its original proposal when bargaining resumes. "The fortunate thing about this situation is it didn't just come up over the past couple of weeks," Hornets guard and players' executive committee member Chris Paul said at an event in Louisiana. "We've known this could be a possibility the past couple of years. I've been telling my teammates the past couple of years, and even the young guys that come in the league, to just be ready for it." Like with the NFL lockout, NBA players won't be the only ones affected. Employees of teams and the league also face a very uncertain future. Stern admitted all options would be considered, including furloughs for his employees. "The people who stand to have their livings impacted by a shutdown of our industry are going to have a negative view of both sides," Stern said. "I think our fans will tend to have a negative view of why can't you guys work this thing out." --- AP Sports Writer Rachel Cohen in New York, Brett Martel in New Orleans and Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. --- Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney The Associated Press You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.

NBA: Whalen, Wiggins lead Lynx to 101-71 win over Shock

NBA NBA Whalen, Wiggins lead Lynx to 101-71 win over Shock 1 Jul 2011, 3:40 am TULSA, Okla. â€" Lindsay Whalen scored 13 of her 21 points in the second period, Candice Wiggins added 18 points and the Minnesota Lynx cruised to a 101-71 victory over the Tulsa Shock on Thursday night. Rebekkah Brunson and Taj McWilliams-Franklin had 12 points each and Maya Moore scored 11 for the Lynx (6-3), who outscored the Shock 31-12 in the second quarter and led by 26 in the early minutes of the third. Ivory Latta scored 13 points for Tulsa (1-9), finishing three shy of reaching 1,000 for her career. Kayla Pedersen scored 12 poings, and Tiffany Jackson and Jennifer Lacy had 11 each. The Shock's Sheryl Swoopes suffered a hamstring injury early in the game and did not return. She finished with five points in about 6 1/2 minutes. The Associated Press You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.

NBA: DeSouza's double-double leads Dream past Liberty

NBA NBA DeSouza's double-double leads Dream past Liberty 1 Jul 2011, 3:24 am ATLANTA â€" Erika DeSouza tied a career high with 27 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, Lindsey Harding scored 25 points and the Atlanta Dream rallied for an 87-81 victory over the New York Liberty on Thursday night. DeSouza's size and agility caused matchup problems for the Liberty, who were outscored 46-22 in the paint. She shot 11 for 16 from the field as the Dream (3-7) snapped a two-game skid. Cappie Pondexter scored 24 points for New York (4-5), which couldn't hold a 10-point after Plenette Pierson hit an 18-footer with 3:40 left in the third quarter. Atlanta went on a 14-3 run that ended with Armintie Price's runner in the final minute of the period for a 62-61 lead - the Dream's first since the game's early seconds. DeSouza's two free throws with 5:11 left put Atlanta ahead 73-72 and it never trailed again. She hit a 17-footer from the right baseline for an 83-78 lead as the shot clock was expiring with 45.7 seconds remaining. Essence Carson scored 12 points and Kia Vaughn 11 for the Liberty, who had won two straight. New York took its first 10-point lead midway through the first quarter on Carson's 3-pointer. Breland's jumper with 6:22 to go in the second extended the lead to 34-21, the Liberty's biggest advantage of the game. Nicole Powell opened the third quarter with a pair of 3s that caused Dream coach Marynell Meadors to call timeout with Atlanta trailing 50-39. Lindsey Harding's layup helped the Dream cut the lead to five midway through the third, but Pondexter followed with a jumper and Vaughn a pair of layups to make it 56-45. Pierson left the game briefly with a left ankle injury early in the second. She was being defended by Sandora Irvin from behind when Harding collided with her in front. Pierson returned at the midpoint of the period and finished with eight points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes. DeSouza also scored 27 points on Sept. 4, 2009, at Sacramento. The Associated Press You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.

NBA: NBA to lock out players after no new deal

NBA NBA NBA to lock out players after no new deal 1 Jul 2011, 2:27 am NBA commissioner David Stern, right, and deputy commissioner Adam Silver speak to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Maurice Evans, center, of the Washington Wizards, arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players are meeting Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and seemingly nowhere close to a deal. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP San Antonio Spurs' Matt Bonner, center, arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players are meeting Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and seemingly nowhere close to a deal. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern, left, and NBA spokesperson Mike Bass arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players will meet Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, right, and NBA union chief Billy Hunter arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players will meet Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union chief Billy Hunter speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Hunter says "it's obvious the lockout will happen tonight" after players and owners failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, potentially putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. The CBA expires at midnight, after which all league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union executive committee member Matt Bonner, of the San Antonio Spurs, speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers, leaves a midtown hotel a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA union chief Billy Hunter speaks with reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NEW YORK â€" The NBA's thrilling season came with a high price tag. LeBron's move to Miami and Dirk's title in Dallas couldn't hide a simple fact: Owners insisted they were losing money, perhaps $300 million this season, and weren't interested in subsidizing a system they felt guaranteed they'd keep losing more. So the NBA will lock out its players, a long-expected move that puts the 2011-12 season in jeopardy and comes as the NFL is trying to end its own work stoppage that began in March. The latest lockout begins at 12:01 EDT on Friday. It will last until player and owners can agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, one owners demand must give all teams a chance to profit. "We had a great year in terms of the appreciation of our fans for our game. It just wasn't a profitable one for the owners, and it wasn't one that many of the smaller market teams particularly enjoyed or felt included in," Commissioner David Stern said. "The goal here has been to make the league profitable and to have a league where all 30 teams can compete." Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday and a final proposal from the players - which NBA leaders said would have raised average player salaries to $7 million in the sixth year of the deal - the sides could not close the enormous gulf between their positions. "The problem is that there's such a gap in terms of the numbers, where they are and where we are, and we just can't find any way to bridge that gap," union chief Billy Hunter said. All league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday. The NBA's summer league in Las Vegas already has been canceled, preseason games in Europe were never scheduled, and players might have to decide if they want to risk playing in this summer's Olympic qualifying tournaments without the NBA's help in securing insurance in case of injury. And teams will be prohibited from having any contact with their players, most of whom won't be paid until a deal is done but insist they'll hang in anyway. "We're going to stand up for what we have to do, no matter how long it's going to take," Thunder star Kevin Durant told The Associated Press. "No matter how long the lockout's going to take, we're going to stand up. We're not going to give in." The lockout comes exactly one year after one of the NBA's most anticipated days in recent years, when James, Dwyane Wade and the rest of the celebrated class of 2010 became free agents. That free agency bonanza - highlight by the James, Wade, Chris Bosh trio in Miami - got the league started on a season where ticket and merchandise sales, ratings and buzz were all up. That weakened the owners' case that the system was broken beyond repair, but it also demonstrated why they wanted changes, with Stern saying owners feel pressured to spend as much as possible to prove their commitment to winning to fans. The last lockout reduced the 1998-99 season to just a 50-game schedule, the only time the NBA missed games for a work stoppage. Hunter said it's too early to be concerned about that. "I hope it doesn't come down to that," he said. "Obviously, the clock is now running with regard to whether or not there will or will be a loss of games, and so I'm hoping that over the next month or so that there will be sort of a softening on their side and maybe we have to soften our position as well." The NBA appeared headed this route from the start of negotiations. Owners said they lost hundreds of millions in every season of this CBA, ratified in 2005. League officials said 22 of the 30 teams would lose money. So they took a hard-line stance from the start, with their initial proposal in 2010 calling for a hard salary cap system, reducing contract lengths and eliminating contract guarantees, as well as reducing player salary costs by about $750 million annually. Though the proposal was withdrawn after a contentious meeting with players at the 2010 All-Star weekend, the league never moved from its wish list until recently, and Hunter said he believes negotiations never recovered from that rocky beginning. The union had previously filed an unfair labor charge against the league with the National Labor Relations Board for unfair bargaining practices, complaining the NBA's goal was to avoid meaningful negotiation until a lockout was in place. Despite frequent meetings this month, the sides just didn't make much progress. Owners want to reduce the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenue and weren't moved by the players' offer to drop it to 54.3 percent - though players said that would have cut their salaries by $500 million over five years. They sparred over the league's characterization of its "flex" salary cap proposal - players considered it a hard cap, which they oppose - and any chance of a last-minute deal was quickly lost Thursday when league officials said the union's move was in the wrong direction financially. "I don't think we're closer; in fact it worries me that we're not closer. We have a huge philosophical divide," Stern said. Hunter said he hopes the two sides will meet again in the next two weeks, after the union has looked at some additional documents it requested. The players' association seems unlikely, at least for now, to follow the NFLPA's model by decertifying and taking the battle into the court system, instead choosing to continue negotiations. Hunter said last week he felt owners believe the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, which is debating the legality of the NFL's lockout, will uphold employers' rights to impose lockouts. "We'll just continue to ask our fans to stick with us and remain patient with us. As players we want to play. That's who we are; we're basketball players," Lakers guard and union president Derek Fisher said. "Right now we're faced with dealing with the business aspect of our game. We're going to do it the same way we play basketball. We're going to work hard. We're going to be focused. We're going to be dedicated to getting the results that we want." About 90 percent of NBA players get paid from Nov. 15 through April 30, so they won't be missing checks for a while. But Stern has warned that the offers only get worse once a lockout starts, so the league could try to push through elements of its original proposal when bargaining resumes. "The fortunate thing about this situation is it didn't just come up over the past couple of weeks," Hornets guard and players' executive committee member Chris Paul said at an event in Louisiana. "We've known this could be a possibility the past couple of years. I've been telling my teammates the past couple of years, and even the young guys that come in the league, to just be ready for it." Like with the NFL lockout, NBA players won't be the only ones affected. Employees of teams and the league also face a very uncertain future. Stern admitted all options would be considered, including furloughs for his employees. "The people who stand to have their livings impacted by a shutdown of our industry are going to have a negative view of both sides," Stern said. "I think our fans will tend to have a negative view of why can't you guys work this thing out." --- AP Sports Writer Rachel Cohen in New York, Brett Martel in New Orleans and Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. --- Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney The Associated Press You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.

NBA: Amundson exercises player option with Warriors

NBA NBA Amundson exercises player option with Warriors 1 Jul 2011, 12:41 am OAKLAND, Calif. â€" Golden State Warriors forward Lou Amundson has told the team that he is exercising the player option on his contract for next season. The Warriors also announced Thursday that they waived forward Jeff Adrien. Both moves came before the start of the NBA lockout on Friday. Amundson appeared in 46 games for the Warriors last season, averaging 4.3 points and 4.0 rebounds. Overall during his five-year NBA career, he has averaged 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds in 228 regular-season games with Utah, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Golden State. Adrien appeared in 23 games over two stints with the Warriors last season, averaging 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. The Associated Press You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.

NBA: NBA to lock out players at 12:01 EDT Friday

NBA NBA NBA to lock out players at 12:01 EDT Friday 1 Jul 2011, 12:38 am NBA commissioner David Stern, right, and deputy commissioner Adam Silver speak to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Maurice Evans, center, of the Washington Wizards, arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players are meeting Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and seemingly nowhere close to a deal. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP San Antonio Spurs' Matt Bonner, center, arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players are meeting Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and seemingly nowhere close to a deal. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern, left, and NBA spokesperson Mike Bass arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players will meet Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, right, and NBA union chief Billy Hunter arrives at a midtown hotel for a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Negotiators for owners and players will meet Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union chief Billy Hunter speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Hunter says "it's obvious the lockout will happen tonight" after players and owners failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, potentially putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. The CBA expires at midnight, after which all league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union executive committee member Matt Bonner, of the San Antonio Spurs, speaks to reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP Union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers, leaves a midtown hotel a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA commissioner David Stern speaks to reporters after a meeting with the players' union, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NBA union chief Billy Hunter speaks with reporters after a meeting with the NBA, Thursday, June 30, 2011 in New York. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday, the sides could not close the enormous gap that remained in their positions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) â€" AP NEW YORK â€" The NBA is locking out its players until a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached, the second pro sports league shut down by labor strife. The lockout will commence at 12:01 EDT on Friday, after the expiration of the current deal that owners say has cost them millions of dollars a year. "We had a great year in terms of the appreciation of our fans for our game. It just wasn't a profitable one for the owners, and it wasn't one that many of the smaller market teams particularly enjoyed or felt included in," Commissioner David Stern said. "The goal here has been to make the league profitable and to have a league where all 30 teams can compete." The long-expected lockout could put the 2011-12 season in jeopardy and comes as the NFL is trying to end its own work stoppage that began in March. "The expiring collective bargaining agreement created a broken system that produced huge financial losses for our teams," Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. Despite a three-hour meeting Thursday and a final proposal from the players - which NBA leaders said would have raised average player salaries to $7 million in the sixth year of the deal - the sides could not close the enormous gulf between their positions. "The problem is that there's such a gap in terms of the numbers, where they are and where we are, and we just can't find any way to bridge that gap," union chief Billy Hunter said. All league business is officially on hold, starting with the free agency period that would have opened Friday. And teams will be prohibited from having any contact with their players. The last lockout reduced the 1998-99 season to just a 50-game schedule, the only time the NBA missed games for a work stoppage. Hunter said it's too early to be concerned about that. "I hope it doesn't come down to that," he said. "Obviously, the clock is now running with regard to whether or not there will or will be a loss of games, and so I'm hoping that over the next month or so that there will be sort of a softening on their side and maybe we have to soften our position as well." Despite frequent meetings this month, the sides just didn't make much progress. Owners want to reduce the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenue and weren't interested in the players' offer to drop it to 54.3 percent - though players said that would have cut their salaries by $500 million over five years. They sparred over the league's characterization of its "flex" salary cap proposal - players considered it a hard cap, which they oppose - and any chance of a last-minute deal was quickly lost Thursday when league officials said the union's move was in the wrong direction financially. "I don't think we're closer; in fact it worries me that we're not closer. We have a huge philosophical divide," Stern said. The NBA's summer league in Las Vegas already has been canceled, preseason games in Europe were never scheduled, and players might have to decide if they want to risk playing in this summer's Olympic qualifying tournaments without the NBA's help in securing insurance in case of injury. The expected lockout comes exactly one year after one of the NBA's most anticipated days in recent years, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the rest of the celebrated class of 2010 became free agents. That free agency bonanza - highlight by the James, Wade, Chris Bosh trio in Miami - got the league started on a season where ticket and merchandise sales, ratings and buzz were all up. That weakened the owners' case that the system was broken beyond repair, but it also demonstrated why they wanted changes, with Stern saying owners feel pressured to spend as much as possible to prove their commitment to winning to fans. "We had a great year in terms of the appreciation of our fans for our game. It just wasn't a profitable one for the owners, and it wasn't one that many of the smaller market teams particularly enjoyed or felt included in," Stern said. "The goal here has been to make the league profitable and to have a league where all 30 teams can compete." Hunter said he hopes the two sides will meet again in the next two weeks. The players' association seems unlikely, at least for now, to follow the NFLPA's model by decertifying and taking the battle into the court system, instead choosing to continue negotiations. Hunter said last week he felt owners believe the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, which is debating the legality of the NFL's lockout, will uphold employers' rights to impose lockouts. "We'll just continue to ask our fans to stick with us and remain patient with us. As players we want to play. That's who we are; we're basketball players," Lakers guard and union president Derek Fisher said. "Right now we're faced with dealing with the business aspect of our game. We're going to do it the same way we play basketball. We're going to work hard. We're going to be focused. We're going to be dedicated to getting the results that we want." The NBA projected $300 million in losses this season and said it lost hundreds of millions in every season of this CBA, ratified in 2005. League officials said 22 of the 30 teams would lose money. But owners don't just want to minimize their losses. They want to make a profit, along with developing a system in which small-market teams could compete with the biggest spenders. The Lakers and Mavericks, who won the last three NBA titles, are annually at the top of the list of highest payrolls. So they took a hard-line stance from the start, with their initial proposal in 2010 calling for the institution of a hard salary cap system, along with massive reductions in contract lengths and elimination in contract guarantees. Though the proposal was withdrawn after a contentious meeting with players at the 2010 All-Star weekend, the league never moved from its wish list until recently. About 90 percent of NBA players get paid from Nov. 15 through April 30, so they won't be missing checks for a while. But Stern has warned that the offers only get worse once a lockout starts, so the league could try to push through elements of its original proposal when bargaining resumes. Like with the NFL lockout, NBA players won't be the only ones affected. Employees of teams and the league also face a very uncertain future. Stern admitted all options would be considered, including furloughs for his employees. "The people who stand to have their livings impacted by a shutdown of our industry are going to have a negative view of both sides," Stern said. "I think our fans will tend to have a negative view of why can't you guys work this thing out." --- AP Sports Writer Rachel Cohen contributed to this report. --- Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney The Associated Press You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.