Basketball: Marathon talks followed by silence

NEW YORK: NBA owners and locked-out players met with a federal mediator for more than 16 hours before the longest contract negotiating session of the bitter money dispute ended yesterday with no public comments. The first two weeks of the 2011-2012 NBA season have already been wiped out. The marathon session was the longest since the lockout began on July 1 and the first to feature US mediator George Cohen, who entered a similar collective bargaining dispute earlier this year with American football owners and players. Cohen asked both sides to refrain from making comments to the media and those involved in the Manhattan talks duly complied.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2011.