Adam Silver hopeful of NBA CBA deal by end of week

NEW YORK — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday afternoon that there has been progress made toward striking a new collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Players Association, and that he can «foresee» a potential new deal being agreed upon between now and Friday night's deadline to opt out of the current agreement.

«I think both sides understand that this is a window of opportunity that we should try not to miss,» Silver said during his news conference at the conclusion of this week's meeting of the league's board of governors in midtown Manhattan. «Because, if we don't have the deal done this Friday, the next real deadline is June 30, but that's the very end of the season.

»The whole idea behind these early deadlines [is] to try to avoid going right up to the line."

Silver said the league and the NBPA have separated the various issues on the table into different groups, from player health to systemic issues with the league to various economic discussions, and said both sides can «acknowledge we've come closer together.»

Still, he said, there is a «gap» between where things currently stand and where he believes they will need to go in order to get a new deal done ahead of Friday night's deadline for discussions.

One thing that seems unlikely to happen, however, is that the two sides will go into next season operating under the current agreement. While there have been discussions for the better part of a year over getting a new deal done, the current one allows both sides the opportunity to opt out of the final year of the deal, or to let it run through the 2023-24 season.

Asked whether he would be all right with it running through next season and then expiring, Silver said he would not be,