Commissioner David Stern says the NBA and union might have to make "some adjustments" to the labor contract when it expires in two years, but he foresees no "doomsday scenario" for the league because of the current economic crisis.
Minnesota Timberwolves coach Kevin McHale said recently the NBA had entered its own "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac era of subprime loans" because of player salaries. He added that players will need to make substantial concessions at the bargaining table.
Agent David Falk predicted to The New York Times that the next round of talks will be "very, very extreme," and owners could shut down the league for a year or two if the players don't agree to the owners' demands.
"I'd just say the 'doomsday scenario' is that the NBA is somehow going to be irretrievably damaged by some event or another," Stern said Monday at George Washington University, where Washington Wizardsowner Abe Pollin was inducted into the School of Business Sports Executives Hall of Fame. "The predictions of the demise of the NBA were frequent and profound [over the years], and they've always been wrong."
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