NEW YORK — Saying he was sad and sorry, NBA commissioner David Stern canceled the first two weeks of the season Monday after players and owners were unable to reach a new labor deal to end the lockout.
“The gap is so significant that we just can’t bridge it at this time,” said Stern, who added it’s doubtful a full 82-game season can be played.
It’s the NBA’s first work stoppage since the 1998-99 season was reduced to 50 games.
“We’re not at a place where a fair deal can be reached with the NBA,” union president Derek Fisher said.
With just three weeks remaining before the start of the season, negotiators for both sides met for more than seven hours Monday but were unable to reach an agreement. The two sides expect to remain in contact, but no additional formal talks have been scheduled.
Stern said both sides are “very far apart on virtually all issues. . . . We just have a gulf that separates us.”
Opening night was scheduled for Nov. 1, and the cancellation includes all games scheduled to be played through Nov. 14. Affected arenas have been authorized to release dates for those dates.
Not every player had lost faith in the salvation of a season.
“It’s tough, but I kind of expected the first games to not be in effect,” Nuggets rookie Jordan Hamilton told Denver Post reporter Benjamin Hochman. “It’s not nervousness or anything like that, because I think something will get solved. I think there will be a season. If I had any doubt in my mind, I wouldn’t have come out (of the University of Texas) early.”
