NBA and Players Resume Negotiations
Negotiations to end the N.B.A. lockout have quietly resumed, with the goal of reaching a deal in time to stage a 66-game season that would start Christmas Day.
The talks began in earnest on Tuesday and are expected to continue on Friday, according to two people informed of the talks. If a deal is reached this weekend, it would give the league the approximately four-week window it needs to prepare for a Dec. 25 opening day.
That date is enticing to everyone involved, allowing the league to take advantage of the holiday setting and a captive television audience that, they hope, might be in a forgiving mood. Christmas is also the traditional tipoff for the N.B.A.’s national TV schedule.
A tipoff before New Year’s provides enough time for a compressed, 66-game schedule, 16 fewer than normal, despite starting eight weeks late. It would require extending the regular season into late April and pushing back the finals by a week.
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