NBPA's Roberts hopeful of avoiding 2017 work stoppage
National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts has verbally sparred with NBA commissioner Adam Silver on occasion during her one year on the job, but she maintains that ongoing negotiations will help avoid a lockout in 2017.
Roberts said in a recent interview with Davide Chinellato of Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport that meetings this month should set the stage for a deal to prevent a possible 2017 work stoppage by the end of this coming season.
"Both commissioner Silver and myself want to do everything possible to prevent (a lockout)," Roberts said in an interview translated by Sportando and verified by theScore. "The only way is to negotiate. We have already started, we will meet again in early September with the hope to announce (a deal by) the end of the season."
Both sides can declare their intent to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 15, 2016. With the salary cap poised to skyrocket next summer, rhetoric has been flowing from both sides given the surplus of cash about to hit the league - and how it will be divided. Roberts' union rejected a proposed "cap smoothing" measure by the NBA in March.
The 58-year-old former trial attorney added that her working relationship with Silver is good.
"We are both relatively new in the respective roles, but we are keeping conversations regular," she said.
Roberts started as NBPA director last September, six months after Silver took over the commissionership of the league from David Stern.