The NBA and its locked-out basketballers will take their contract dispute to a federal mediator as they try to resolve differences that have already cost the first two weeks of the season.
George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), announced yesterday that he will oversee negotiationsbetween the NBA and the NBA Players Association (NBPA), beginning on Wednesday in New York.
Cohen, who tried to resolve the NFL's labour dispute months before it eventually ended, said he had been in contact with representatives on both sides of the basketball talks "for a number of months".
"I have participated in separate, informal, off-the-record discussions with the principals representing the NBA and the NBPA concerning the status of their collective bargaining negotiations," Cohen said in a statement issued by the FMCS in Washington.
"It is evident that the ongoing dispute will result in a serious impact, not only upon the parties directly involved, but also, of major concern, on interstate commerce - ie, the employers and working men and women who provide services related to the basketball games and, more generally, on the economy of every city in which those games are scheduled to be played."
Negotiations between NBA owners and players stalled on Tuesday, and the league announced it was calling off the first two weeks of its regular season, which had been scheduled to start on November 1. Pre-season games had already been wiped out.
Stumbling blocks in the talks have been a salary cap system - with owners favouring a hard cap without the current loopholes - and division of revenues.
Cohen oversaw talks between NFL owners and players for 16 days in February and March that did not yield an agreement.
