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NEW YORK – The NFL’s party week was briefly interrupted by a sobering message about the league’s labor situation.
Now it could be the NBA’s turn.
The league’s collective bargaining agreement also will expire in 2011, and management and the players’ association will meet next weekend during the All-Star events in Dallas as they try to negotiate a new one.
Indications are it won’t be easy. CBSSports.com, citing a person familiar with the document, reported that the first proposal the league sent the union last week called for a reduction of the players’ share of the basketball-related income from 57 percent to below 50 percent, as well as reductions in the length and amount of maximum value contracts, and elements of a “hard” salary cap to replace the current system that forces teams exceeding the cap to pay a luxury tax.
Neither the league nor the union have commented about the proposal, but it will surely be a topic when commissioner David Stern, and perhaps players’ association executive director Billy Hunter, meets with the media Saturday.
Government records show the FBI investigated threatening letters sent to Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly at the height of his team’s success during the 1989-90 “Bad Boys” championship era. Daly died in May at age 78. The records detail how federal agents in Detroit ordered various lab tests to determine who sent the letters. But no suspects ever were identified.
Former NFL star Warren Sapp has been released from jail on $1,500 bond, a day after being arrested in Miami Beach on charges he choked a woman in his hotel room. Sapp was charged with one count of misdemeanor domestic battery after a night of partying. … Officials said Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Tony McDaniel is out of jail after being arrested and accused of domestic violence. Authorities said he returned from a night out with friends and then got into a fight with his girlfriend Saturday at his home near Miami.
Ross McGowan of England gets the final spot in the 64-man Match Play Championship in Arizona, but only if Tiger Woods doesn’t show up. Sunday was the cutoff for players to qualify for Match Play based on the world ranking. Kevin Na shot a 66 to secure his spot in the $8.5 million World Golf Championship, which is held Feb. 17-21 in Marana, Ariz. Scott Verplank and Chad Campbell also made sure they had a spot in the field.
The San Jose Sharks have bolstered their defense by acquiring Niclas Wallin in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. San Jose also acquired a fifth-round pick and sent a second-round pick to Carolina in the deal.
Florida State announced it will vacate 12 football victories and a 2007 men’s track national championship in an academic cheating scandal, along with dozens more victories and placings across 10 men’s and women’s sports. The NCAA stripped the school of wins in which 61 athletes implicated in the scandal contributed. The college sports governing body upheld the decision last month after Florida State appealed the sanctions as “excessive.”
Convicted ex-Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee was reinstated as a full member of the International Olympic Committee, a boost for South Korea’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Games. Lee voluntarily gave up his IOC rights after being indicted in 2008 in a financial and tax evasion case. … The IOC opened a formal investigation into a doping case that could lead to the stripping of gold medals from a U.S. women’s relay team at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The IOC executive board set up a disciplinary commission into the case of Crystal Cox, who ran in the preliminaries of the winning 4x400 team in Athens. Cox has admitted to using anabolic steroids and accepted a four-year suspension and disqualification of her results from 2001 to 2004.
Danish team Vejle has signed a one-year contract with American defender Euan Holden. … Sunil Gulati has been unanimously re-elected to a second four-year term as president of the U.S. Soccer Federation.
In Lievin, France, the United States secured a spot in the Fed Cup semifinals after teenager Melanie Oudin beat Julie Coin 7-6 (3), 6-4 to give the Americans a 3-0 lead over France. The U.S. will next face Russia. … Feliciano Lopez won his second career ATP Tour title by beating Stephane Robert 7-5, 6-1 in the SA Open final in Johannesburg. … Marin Cilic defended his Zagreb Indoors title by beating Michael Berrer 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in Croatia.
