NBA players and club owners face hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue and risk alienating loyal supporters as the lockout approaches its 100th day and a Monday deadline to save season openers. Team owners and players have not been able to agree on how to divide $3.8 billion in annual revenues and on salary cap issues, the gap so wide it could jeopardize the entire 2011-2012 campaign. NBA commissioner David Stern said when he completed the canceling of all 114 pre-season games that if no deal is made by Monday, what would be Day 102 of the lockout, the NBA would wipe out the first two weeks of its schedule. “We would like not to lose the first two weeks but it doesn't look good,” Stern said. “When you start losing regular-season games on top of losses in the exhibition season, you have two parties that have been financially wounded.” Stern forecast wiping out the pre-season games would cost $200 million and NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said lost weeks of the season would bring much greater losses much faster. “They are in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Silver said. “We're not prepared to share the specifics. But we've spent a lot of time with our teams walking through those scenarios of lost games and the damage will be enormous.” Billy Hunter, executive director of the NBA Players Association, said the players would lose $350 million for each month of the season they miss. Talks broke off when players were unwilling to accept a 50-50 split of basketball-related revenues, a substantial drop from the 57 percent they enjoyed under the prior contract. Stern said that once the season starts losing games, it becomes tougher to find middle ground in talks or a way back. The average NBA player salary of about $5.1 million is the highest in American sport, part of the reason owners say the NBA lost $300 million last season and that only eight of 30 clubs turned a profit. Stern, whose league laid off 114 people in July, showed no reaction when asked about star NBA players making deals to play overseas during the lockout, notably including Bryant's talks to play in Italy.
