Hoops Superstars Attend NBA Negotiations

Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony

National Basketball Association (NBA) superstars Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony joined other players in attending a meeting between the players and the NBA Thursday for a new collective bargaining agreement.

Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and New Orleans’ Chris Paul, who is a member of the players’  executive committee, also attended the session.

“It’s important for me that all of us, as being faces of the NBA, to be involved in the negotiations and what’s going on,’ Anthony said after the meeting. “Our future is in jeopardy if we can’t come into a mutual agreement.”

The current collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players will expire on June 30, 2011.0

A total of 14 players attended the meeting in Manhattan according to Billy Hunter, the executive director of the players’ association. Another meeting is scheduled just before the NBA training camp starts.

“It was great conversation, great dialogue going back and forth,” said Anthony, the franchise player of the Denver Nuggets. “Hopefully we can come to an agreement soon.”

The bargaining session, which lasted for four hours, was the first since All-Star weekend in February, where the players rejected the owners’ new proposal.

A proposal by the players’  union was submitted but commissioner David Stern described the players’ proposal as similar to the current CBA and may be rejected by the owners who want sweeping changes to the current system.

Both sides started to talk about a new CBA but negotiations remained contentious. If they are not able to come into an agreement soon, the NBA may be headed for another lockout or a shortened season just like what happened in 1999.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Friday August 13 2010, 11:11 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0