By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Nov. 23, 1998

We gather together this week to ask the commissioner's blessing.

Since the NBA

Michael Jordan and David Stern have had few meetings as of late. (Allsport)

and the players union can't seem to come up with a deal that works, please commissioner David Stern, let us do it.

Let's begin with the proposed percentage of basketball-related income going from the owners to the players that was slightly more than 57 percent last season. This past week, the players were at 60 percent and the owners were determined to have a 50-50 split. Friday, the players dropped to 57 percent and owners 52.

Duh. How about 55 percent guys? It's called compromise!

OF COURSE, THAT WAS EASY. HOW THEY get there is another story entirely. Everybody got excited after the 12-hour negotiating session Friday. Rightfully so. Each side did budge on the revenue split. That's good news that they at least caved a bit.

We'll see what happens when another full session begins Saturday in New York. There may be a meeting or two of lawyers before then. Maybe not. This is Thanksgiving week, and with Christmas, Chanukah and New Year's all approaching rapidly, at least there's been some movement.

"The general feelings are just a lot better," one NBA source said. "A week ago, I wouldn't say there was a 50 percent chance of the season being canceled, but close to 50 percent. The owners don't want to give up more than they are making, it's as simple as that. But at least they are talking and things are better.

"Remember, that night (Michael) Jordan was heavily involved, everybody got excited and thought a deal was almost done. So I'm not going to get too carried away now, either. We're just better off than we were a week ago, but there are still a lot of issues to be resolved."

One more aspect of the league's proposal -- termed a "deal-killer" by union attorney Jeffrey Kessler -- is the change of the "timing rules." That buzzword means teams are allowed to utilize money under the salary cap to sign an unrestricted free agent, then come back and sign all of its own free agents that fit under the Larry Bird exception for unlimited dollars. The new proposal prohibits a team from exceeding the cap on its own free agents if it signs another free agent and becomes capped out.

YOU WANT A SOLUTION? SURE. WHEN ONE team gets a free agent from another team, it must compensate that team with the contract or the first right of refusal to a selected player on the team who most closely compares in salary and talent to the player lost. That would open up cap room for the team pursuing the free agent and it would continue to allow more parity opportunities for the smaller market teams, preventing wealthier owners from spending wildly.

Granted, it is a little confusing. What isn't when it comes to collective bargaining? Remember, even when a deal is agreed upon in principle, it probably will still require five days to sign it. Once that happens and the rules are clear to all the teams, the free agency war will begin. So they'll need a week for free agent signings, two weeks for training camp and an exhibition game or two, and that makes it nearly four weeks from verbal agreement.

That means if Stern's earlier contention for a minimum 50-game season were to happen, the deal must be done no later than Dec. 15 to reach his criteria for a regular season that is presently scheduled to end April 21.

That's not to say the two sides won't decide to tack on the lost games of November to regain some lost revenue and create a regular season with more games. However, that would mean the NBA Finals wouldn't begin until July 4th week, and they'd have to delay the annual draft, which is right after the Finals, too.

One way or another, a deal should be completed in the next few weeks. All this talk about as many as 10 teams fairing better financially by not having a season rather than pay the present astronomical salaries is all well and good. The city of Seattle already is suing the SuperSonics and owner Barry Ackerley for nearly $2 million over rent lost through canceled games. By the end of the season, that dollar amount will be in the tens of millions of dollars.

So don't even begin to think the basketball product and goodwill within the community won't be fractured in every NBA city. Remember, it required Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to break Roger Maris' home run record to help baseball regain at least some of the luster lost by the work stoppage in 1994 forced the cancellation of the season.

Evidently, that's what hard-line rich folks are all about. At least that's what the rest of us can presume.