The NBA sounded its most ominous tone to date Thursday night when negotiations with the players’ union broke off and Commissioner David Stern responded by saying, “We are resigned to the fact that there won’t be a season.”

Such talk may be mere saber rattling because training camps aren’t scheduled to begin for two months and season openers aren’t for three months. But it does signal that the sides are polarized after a hint of optimism, all while the National Basketball Players Assn. continues to deal with unrest within its own ranks.

A report that the owners were offering to remove a major stumbling block by withdrawing a demand for a luxury tax did not pan out. In the end, union President Buck Williams said the proposal was merely an alternative that would still result in a strict salary cap.

Stern said the union opened the meeting by saying it did not plan to negotiate, and the two sides went to separate rooms after about 45 minutes.


“We encouraged our owners today to reach across and show our players we could, in effect, save the season, and the answer is, ‘we can’t,’ ” Stern told the Associated Press. “We will remain in a lockout.”

Simon Gourdine, the union’s executive director, disputed that and said his door remains open.

“It was the conclusion of our player reps and officers that these [counterproposals] would be unacceptable to the majority of our players,” Gourdine said.

That may become moot. If no deal is reached by midnight Tuesday, the players’ union will relinquish its authority as the bargaining agent. A dissident group of players who want to dissolve the union has forced a decertification vote scheduled for late August or early September.


“If there’s no union, the owners won’t play the ’95 season,” Stern said. “The owners will keep the players locked out.”

Said Williams, the Trail Blazer forward: “If we don’t get a deal done, I definitely feel the next season is in jeopardy.”

The two sides had reached a tentative labor agreement in June, only to have dissident players, spurred by such stars as Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing and several agents, table a ratifying vote on the six-year contract that contained more than $5 billion in salaries and benefits. On July 1, the league began a lockout.

Thursday, the union sought loopholes for teams that go over the salary cap. They would include a floating $1.5-million slot for free agents, a provision to allow teams to use half an injured player’s salary to sign another player and a provision that would allow players who have been with the same team for two years to re-sign at double the salary.


The league said it agreed to the players’ proposal that 50% of an injured player’s salary could be used to sign another player. But, according to Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik, owners offered a 50% salary increase on the two-year players.

The NBA proposed granting teams a salary-cap exception that would reach $1 million by the end of the six-year deal. The union was seeking a $1.5-million exception.

“They were not willing to make any counterproposals to the deal,” Granik said.

And as for the impending decertification vote?


Granik warned that it would at least prevent the season from starting on time.

“If we don’t make a deal and the players vote to decertify, it’s a virtual certainty,” he said. “Then the only question is: do we start in December or January or not at all?”

The NBA has never had a work stoppage that resulted in lost games. If it happens in early November, it would become the third pro sport in 16 months to be halted by strike or lockout, joining major league baseball and the NHL.

Players attending the meeting were New York’s Charles Smith and Herb Williams, Utah’s John Crotty, Cleveland’s Danny Ferry, Houston’s Kenny Smith, Portland’s Terry Porter, Atlanta’s Andrew Lang, Sacramento’s Tyrone Corbin, Dallas’ Jim Jackson, Indiana’s Vern Fleming and Denver’s LaPhonso Ellis.


Also in attendance for the league were owners Jerry Colangelo of Phoenix, Gordon Gund of Cleveland, Les Alexander of Houston and Atlanta President Stan Kasten.