With the NBA owners and players failing to reach anagreement on Monday, commissioner David Stern announced that the first twoweeks of the regular season have been cancelled.The sides met for more than seven hours at a downtown NewYork hotel but were unable to reach a deal.It will be the first time since 1998 that the league hasmissed regular-season games because of a lockout. The owners locked out theplayers on July 1, and despite periodic meetings since that time, the two sideshave been unable to reach an accord.Sterns announcement means that the NBA will not play an82-game schedule this season.The most significant sticking point remains basketballrelated income (BRI), and how the owners and players will split that revenue.BRI is essentially all the money that the NBA generates.Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, theplayers received 57 percent of BRI. They have agreed to reduce that amount to53 percent, but the owners are said to be insisting on a 50-50 split.Those three percentage points represent approximately 120million.There are other areas of disagreement between the sides length of guaranteed contracts, addressing the various exceptions, andpossibly implementing a more punitive luxury tax.Said Stern: We remain very, very apart on all issues.The NBA cancelled 464 regular-season games in 1998-99andthe All-Star Game -- and the season didnt get underway until early February.That year each team played a 50-game schedule.Both sides met for more than five hours on Sunday night andagreed to continue dialogue on Monday afternoon.
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