NBA postpones camps

NEW YORK (AP):

The lockout has started doing real damage to the NBA's calendar. Players won't report at the usual time. The preseason won't start as scheduled.

And more cancellations could be necessary without a new labour deal soon.

Derek Fisher fears the NBA season won't start on time after the latest setback in labour negotiations.

"We have regretfully reached the point on the calendar where we are not able to open training camps on time and need to cancel the first week of preseason games," Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. "We will make further decisions as warranted."

The players' association did not comment.

NBA.com's schedule page, which has a banner across the top listing the number of games on each day, was changed last Friday morning to read "0 Games" for each date until October 16, when there are four games.

Those could be in jeopardy, too, without an agreement by the end of this month or very early October. The league scrapped the remainder of its preseason schedule on October 6 in 1998, when the regular season was reduced to 50 games.

That remains the only time the NBA has lost games to a work stoppage.

The cancellations were inevitable after last Thursday's meeting between owners and players ended without a collective bargaining agreement. Both sides still hope the entire regular season, scheduled to begin November 1, can be saved.

The league locked out the players on July 1 after the expiration of the old labour agreement. Owners and players still haven't agreed on how to divide revenues - players were guaranteed 57 per cent under the previous deal - or the structure of the salary cap.

Hoping to meet this week

The next talks aren't scheduled, but both sides said last Thursday they hope to meet again this week - though the window could be limited because of the Jewish holiday and a union meeting Tuesday in Miami. They probably need a deal by the middle of October to avoid cancelling real games.

Asked last Thursday if he thought things were far enough along to still believe that was possible, Commissioner David Stern said: "I don't have any response to that. I just don't. I don't know the answer."

According to NBA policy, ticket holders for cancelled games will be refunded the cost of the ticket plus one per cent interest.

The NBA had long prepared for a shortened or cancelled preseason, declining to schedule exhibition games overseas for the first time since 2005 - also when a labour pact was set to expire.