Monday 9:49 a.m.
Yahoo Sports reports that contraction is among the B-list issues still awaiting a deal even if the NBPA were to accept it. Most notably, Yahoo reports that the NBA wants to be able to contract teams without the approval of the union, and upon doing so, to be able to lower the players' revenue share accordingly. So even if the framework on the table gets accepted, things like this could detonate a deal, because the players would pretty much have to make "15 to 60 jobs per year over the next six years" their hill to die on. So that's fun.
Monday 10:50 a.m.
* A. Sherrod Blakely brings up a nice case point of where the players are. One player he spoke to wasn't aware of the three-way breakdown of the MLE in the current proposal. These guys have a lot to be educated about in this meeting.
* Luis Scola says that he believes the entire union should vote, not just the player reps. Scola's been pretty adamant about taking the deal.
Monday 10:06 a.m.
* ESPN's Chris Broussard notes that Kobe Bryant was one of the first to accept 50/50 and he might push others to do the deal. Bryant is the guy to watch. He carries the most with the players and in the absence of another major star besides Carmelo Anthony, there's likely to be a big look to him from the younger players, many of whom are player reps. At the same time, there's a big gap between being OK with 50/50 and being OK with this deal in particular.
Monday 9:37 a.m.
* The New York Post reported this weekend that the league has taken games through December 14th off team sites already, without having officially cancelling them. The current proposal the league is weighing would have the season start December 15th, so it looks like everything until then is already gone.
* Aldridge reports Tyson Chandler, Lakers rep Shannon Brown, Ben Gordon, and Danny Granger are in attendance. With Granger and Gordon, that's a lot of guys with big deals, now who don't want rollbacks or voids.
Monday 9:12 a.m.
* Chris Duhon tweeted the following: "Orlando Magic will accept deal." Duhon's been very critical of the deal itself, indeed saying immediately afterward, "this deal sucks" to a Twitter commenter.
* David Aldridge reports Kobe Bryant is in attendance, along with Emeka Okafor, Jeff Green, Mike Conley, Elton Brand, Andre Iguodla, Evan Turner, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and Russell Westbrook.
* Aldridge also reports Carmelo Anthony is in attendance. Strong star presence today. LeBron James is in London today on a promotional tour. Make your own joke here.
