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NBA labor meeting with mediator last 16 hours; more talks planned

NBA players and owners spent a marathon 16 hours meeting with a federal mediator and planned to return early Wednesday to continue the talks.

They didn’t emerge with the deal Commissioner David Stern wanted Tuesday, but things went well enough that owners decided to alter their plans after previously saying they weren’t available Wednesday.

The sides met beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday and went late into the night, finally breaking after 2 a.m. Wednesday. It was more than twice as long as any previous negotiating session since owners locked out players when the old collective bargaining agreement expired June 30.

Both sides left the meeting without commenting at the request of federal mediator George Cohen…

Although the fact that talks didn’t break off is good news, one person with knowledge of the process said not to presume there was any serious progress. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of Cohen’s request.

— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

NBA owners and players will resume their labor negotiations with a federal mediator on Wednesday following a 16-hour session that generated minimal progress, a league source involved in the talks told Yahoo! Sports.

The league and players union emerged from their longest labor meeting of the 111-day lockout “still not anywhere near a deal,” a league source said. Representatives from both sides refused to comment publicly on the nature of talks, citing a gag order from mediator George Cohen.

Asked if the sides had closed any gaps between them, a source in the meeting told Y! Sports: “On small stuff. Hard to see where this is going.”

— Reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports

Stephon Marbury about to begin new season playing basketball in China

China’s most beloved New Yorker, Stephon Marbury, arrived for his third season in the Chinese Basketball Association at Beijing Capital Airport on October 6th with a bunch of bags, a lot of smiles and two big band-aids on his head. (And as always, a lot of people with cameras taking his photos.) After playing one and a half seasons Taiyuan, Shanxi province, and Foshan, Guangdong, two Chinese cities not exactly known as foreign hotspots, Marbury has finally made it to his Chinese professional basketball mecca, Beijing.

This season, Steph will play for the Beijing Shougang Ducks. Last season, led by former New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks center, Randolph Morris, the Ducks finished in eighth place, which gave them the right to be swept out of the first round of the playoffs by eventual league runners-up, Xinjiang Guanghui. Aiming to build off that success, the Ducks brought back Morris for another year and signed Marbury, who interestingly enough was close to signing with the team last year before team management ultimately decided to go with Steve Francis instead. (We don’t need to remind you how that ended up.) Although the team will be weakened with the departure of Jordanian national teammer, Zaid Abbas, who moved on to Fujian SBS this season to act as their Asian import, teaming up with Morris and Taiwanese national team point guard/CBA heartthrob, Lee Hsueh-lin, will give Marbury by far his best chance to make it to the post-season for the first time in his Chinese career.

— Reported by NIUBBall.com

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Carmelo Anthony reveals extent of surgeries on elbow, knee

Carmelo Anthony revealed the severity of his left elbow and right knee surgeries yesterday and confessed he didn’t want it out in the public after it was performed in early May.

Anthony said he had loose chips removed from his left elbow and a broken-bone fragment cleaned out from his left knee.

“Something I like to keep off the radar,” Anthony said on WFAN’s “Boomer & Carton” show on why he kept it secret until late September. “I just wanted to go in there and get it done and not have a big movie surrounding that. Eventually it came out. It came out when I was healthy.” …

The Knicks normally announce their players’ surgeries. But the club needed permission from Anthony because of recent medical disclosure laws, and got denied.

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post

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NBA lockout hurting Madison Square Garden

The biggest losers of the NBA lockout may turn out to be Madison Square Garden’s shareholders.

MSG, the publicly traded company that owns the famous arena, the New York Knicks and the MSG sports network, is facing a $70 million revenue hit if the league’s entire 82-game season is a wash, according to expert estimates.

The loss of the first two weeks of the season, which would have started Nov. 2 against the Miami Heat, will put as much as a $10 million dent in MSG’s revenues, according to estimates.

And the chances of the new season tipping off anytime soon is growing dimmer with NBA Commissioner David Stern describing league negotiations as “far apart.” …

Media analyst Rich Tullo at Albert Fried & Co. forecasts that from Nov. 2 to Nov. 14 lost ticket sales — as well as sales of beer, hot dogs and other merchandise at the 19,000-seat arena — will drain as much as $7 million from MSG’s coffers.

Another $3 million in lost advertising dollars could come from MSG Networks, where ratings have averaged about 137,000 per game, according to MSG figures.

— Reported by Mark DeCambre and Claire Atkinson of the New York Post

Amar`e Stoudemire says players should maybe someday start their own league

New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire said he had received calls about playing overseas, but was not considering them. But he also said that if the lockout dragged on he “may entertain it more and more.”

He then offered a more ambitious idea.

“If you don’t go to Europe, then let’s start our own league,” he said. “That’s how I see it.” He said such a league would only happen if the lockout “goes one or two years.”

“It’s very, very, very serious,” he said. “It’s just a matter of us strategically coming up with a plan and a blueprint and putting it together.

“We want to play N.B.A. basketball, but if it doesn’t happen, then what are we going to do? Sit around and not do anything. So we got to figure out ways to now play basketball at a high level against top competition and have fun doing it. So that’s the next step.”

— Reported by Jorge Castillo of the New York Times Blog

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Sports media fight! Cameramen brawl outside NBA lockout meeting

While representatives of NBA owners and the players union wrestled using words and business negotiation in a posh Manhattan hotel, a pair of media members got into a fight on the street outside.

We don’t know what set these guys off, but the cameraman decided it was time to brawl. They went at it for a good minute and a half, and while it’s clear these guys have watched their share of karate movies and boxing matches, the fight was pretty tame.

Are you laughing at the idea of cameraman squaring up to brawl on the streets? I sure am.

This is exactly like Ali-Frazier, only the opposite.

Watch the video. Hat tip to a Nets fan named James who emailed it to us:

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Two stars from Psych on USA network give InsideHoops shoutouts

The show Psych on USA Network is an InsideHoops.com favorite. I watch it, and tons of our message board members love it as well. Several pro-Psych forum discussions exist and it’s almost all positive. The general consensus is that it’s an extremely fun show.

So it was cool when InsideHoops.com was recently invited to cover a USA network event called “Psych Fan Appreciation Day,” celebrating the upcoming new Psych season with dedicated fans of the show. We were treated to an advance preview of the season premiere, and met virtually the entire cast.

We’ll post some interview quotes in the next day or two, but right now we’ll jump right to the extra good stuff and present video clips of two Psych stars welcoming you to InsideHoops.com:

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Carmelo Anthony hopes for November all-star exhibition game in NYC

Carmelo Anthony talked late Saturday night about playing a basketball game in New York City in mid-November, but not at the Garden and not in a Knicks uniform.

Anthony emerged from the FIU locker room at midnight Saturday pretty certain the NBA will cancel the first two weeks of the season today — no matter the last-hour meeting being arranged for last night between the two sides in the league’s labor dispute.

Nothing is set in stone, but Anthony believes he, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and friends will stage a big exhibition in the Big Apple.

“We’re going to keep giving back,” Anthony said.

On his Twitter account yesterday, Anthony started banging the drums for his Big Apple charity-fest.

“Working on an epic exhibition charity game in NYC,” he wrote. “Showtime. I’m comin’ home.”

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post

Carmelo Anthony expects NBA games to be canceled

With NBA commissioner David Stern saying the start of the regular season will be canceled if no deal is reached by Monday to end the lockout, Carmelo Anthony said he was not expecting a miracle.

“Right now, it looks like they’re going to cancel the first two weeks of the season,” the New York forward said after scoring 30 points as his Team Wade beat Team LeBron 141-140 on Saturday night in a charity game put together by Miami stars Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

“Let’s be realistic,” Anthony added. “I don’t think nothing is going to happen between now and Monday. We just got to prepare for that and prepare for the lockout for the first two weeks of the regular season.”

— Reported by NewsCore via Fox Sports Florida

Amar`e Stoudemire looks healthy and fit in South Florida charity game

Knicks superstars Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony keyed last night’s Team Wade 141-140 overtime victory over Team LeBron in the South Florida All-Star Classic hosted by Isiah Thomas and Florida International.

But neither player believes he is going to be keying victories for the Knicks any time soon.

“The way it looks right now they’re going to cancel the first two weeks of the season,” Anthony said after dropping 30 points and hitting a clutch, game-tying 3-pointer with two seconds left to force overtime.

Stoudemire dropped in 21 points to go with 10 rebounds and hit two of Team Wade’s final three buckets in overtime, scoring five points in the final 45 seconds. It wasn’t a bd showing for Stoudemire, who spent most of the summer rehabbing a pulled back muscle.

“I felt great,” Stoudemire said. “First time playing since the playoffs. I feel I’m in great shape. It’s the most I played since last season.”

— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post

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