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NBA Players To Hold Press Conference
At UCLA Today At 10:30 A.M.--(Oct. 6, 1998)

Several NBA players, part of a nationwide series of press conferences being held this morning at arenas around the country, will appear at the plaza just outside the Men's gym at UCLA. Eddie Jones, Olden Polynice, and Jalen Rose are scheduled to appear. The purpose of the conference is to enlist support for the players' position in the dispute with the owners.

Yesterday, the NBA cancelled it's preseason, and there's not much time left to save the regular season. The NBA's perfect record of never missing a regular-season game because of a labor dispute is in serious jeopardy, and the next negotiation session is set for this Thursday. If an agreement isn't reached by then, the season will most certainly be shortened. The league earlier called off the first 24 exhibition games and canceled the final 90 exhibition games yesterday. "At this point, our teams cannot possibly be ready to play any games before November," Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik told reporters.

When the players and owners reps meet on Thursday, they won't have much time to get things together. The season is scheduled to begin Nov. 3, and they will need to reach an agreement almost immediately or there won't be an 82-game schedule this year. That's because once a new agreement is reached, it will take at least three weeks to sign players, make trades and hold abbreviated training camps. So unless a deal can be completed a few days after they meet again, there's not much chance of starting on time.

The owners made their latest proposal 10 days ago, again asking for an "absolute" or "hard" salary cap. The players obviously disagree, because this would require all the players on a team to share a finite number of dollars, whereas the ability to earn profits (or so the argument goes by the players) is unlimited for the owners, and the players feel they should share in the upside potential too. The owners obviously disagree. The key to breaking the logjam (although it won't really settle the issue) could be the anticipated ruling from arbitrator John Feerick on the union's grievance over whether players with guaranteed contracts should be paid during the lockout. Feerick's decision could come at any time before Oct. 19, and if he rules for the players, the owners will have no choice but to pay, which could give them a huge incentive to end the lockout.

We're not certain what the players think they will accomplish by holding "press-conferences" at places like UCLA, but then we're not certain about why anyone does anything in the NBA? If you're nearby, you might want to check it out. At least it should be good for a couple of autographs.