Lockout Hopes Remain Dim

NEW YORK--It's called the January Theory, and it holds that the NBA lockout will last at least another five weeks.

"It could be that they don't meet for another month," agent Steve Kauffman said yesterday. "I've been telling my players for the past couple of weeks that they shouldn't expect to play until mid-January at the earliest."

With negotiations stalled and the players believing the owners are trying to further test their resolve, it appears that commissioner David Stern is following a lockout calendar similar to the one employed by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman during the 1994-95 lockout, which wasn't settled until Jan.13.

The hockey lockout included a period from Dec. 6-Jan. 7 in which no talks were held. The sides then made "final" offers and "final-final" offers before a marathon negotiating session settled it.

It would take another three weeks of lockout limbo to match that month lull. So far, the sides in the NBA dispute have gone 10 days since their last full bargaining session, and that 9.5-hour meeting was the only one the sides had in November.

Currently, the owners and players are at odds over whether there will be preconditions for a resumption.

About 120 players participated in a conference call Saturday and were brought up to date on the stalemate, a union spokesperson said.

Today will mark the second missed payday for the players, and a new month will begin tomorrow with the outlook bleak. Millions of dollars have been lost, the fans are upset and the long-term damage could be worse than expected.