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Reporting from Las Vegas— Billy Hunter, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Assn., emerged last week from a meeting with one-tenth of his 400-plus locked out players.

With NBA owners pushing hard on the idea they need to significantly slash payroll and institute a hard salary cap as a response to their claim 23 of 30 teams are losing money, Hunter's players appear headed to a fall — and perhaps winter — without paychecks.

Player unity, then, is a crucial element of avoiding a salary free fall. After the session with players — who have already agreed to trim their share of basketball-related income from 57% to 53% — Hunter declared, "We dispelled the notion that the players aren't together."

How do you know that?

"By the fact that they're standing here behind me now and what was said in that room. We know the owners are dug in . . . they've seen what has happened in hockey; that you can break the will of the players. We spent three years preparing these guys for this. I'm convinced they'll hang in there, that they'll stay the course for the year if that's what it takes."

So, the players have saved money for a lockout fund?

"I haven't heard one guy yet say anything about their financial strain. They say they're prepared. Plus, we know the league has to return 8% of last year's salaries from an escrow fund for coming in lower than the [2010-11 salary] cap. That's another $26 million to the guys to help them if the paychecks don't start coming Nov. 16."

What would you define as the biggest holdup to an agreement?

"The system. The players are insistent there be no hard salary cap. If they [owners] keep pushing for the type of salary cap they've indicated, we'll give up any percentage to share in the league's future growth. We've already said we won't accept that proposal they've given."

Several of your players are multimillionaires who aren't exposed to the physical rigors other athletes are. If the fans are going to start choosing sides, why should they support the players?

"We have some of the same issues now that so many individuals in this country experience. Of course, the difference is the pay scale. But the system we operate under is pay for performance. These players are the widgets. They're replaceable. They face competition for their jobs. They do endure injuries, their bodies take a toll. The back end of some of their lives will be difficult."

I saw Compton's DeMar DeRozan backing you at today's news conference. What are your thoughts about a young man like him when you enter negotiations with the NBA?

"It's about him, and so many others like him. They generate all the revenue for this league, and being paid what they deserve enables opportunities for their families who've never had — if not for basketball. I read where 50% of black males ages 17-52 are unemployed in New York. Maybe it's not that bad everywhere else, but it's severe. This will either have a tremendous positive or negative impact on determining unemployment in the arena, restaurant and service industries around where we play. Plus, community morale. Fans love their teams, and in these hard times, sports can be a major, important distraction from the real world that we should be committed to provide."

What role will NBA superstars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James play as this moves forward?

"They've been deeply involved in the meetings we've had. I know Kobe is intimately involved in interfacing with colleagues and sharing in a pool of revenue to help the others get through this. Kobe has volunteered to do that in the event others need, he and others are prepared to loan money if necessary."

Doesn't this back-and-forth about what percentage of salary cut the players will accept go away if the owners could establish a more effective revenue-sharing plan that, for instance, would allow other teams to enjoy some of the billions the Lakers will collect from their new television deal?

"The owners can figure that out, but the question is how they will adopt a new plan. They know a good, robust plan resolves these things, but we haven't heard any specifics about what they're considering. I will tell you I know this: We won't be able to do a deal until that gets resolved."

In an atmosphere that is getting increasingly gloomy with regards to the NBA lockout, Chris Bosh has provided a breath of fresh air. The Miami Heat star sat down for an interview recently and expressed optimism about the NBA lockout situation and the next season.

The league has been in lockout for over two months now. The old CBA expired and the failure of the NBA owners and players to agree on a new one means that there will be no NBA season next term, unless, of course, the two sides resolve their differences.

That though seems unlikely. Both sides have been extremely rigid with their stances so far, the owners more than the players. Since the lockout began on July 1st there haven’t been many olive branches extended. One scheduled meeting was cancelled and only two have been held between the players and the NBA.

In the last one there was some positive news as some ground rules were agreed over how to take the negotiating process forward, nothing else. That is a painfully slow rate of progress by any and all standards and NBA fans have seriously started to fear the worst; the loss of an entire NBA season.

National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Billy Hunter, among others, has already declared that he doesn’t expect there to be an NBA season 2011-2012 and NBA Commissioner David Stern doesn’t look in any mood to prove him wrong.

Therefore you have to commend Chris Bosh’s optimism when he says he is still hopeful major damage would be avoided in the ongoing fight over a new CBA.

"I'm an optimistic person anyway," Bosh said. "The NBA is as good as it's ever been right now and I think there's no reason to miss out on it. So I think everybody will come to a conclusion. When you're dealing with business, emotions and feelings get involved and that's natural. You're going to have arguments. But I think as long as everybody knows that and as long as we keep moving forward to a deal, then that's progress."

Bosh is right about the NBA being at a high at the moment. The league’s revenues have never been greater and the fans are more involved than in many past years. Last season the Miami Heat’s acquisition of LeBron James and Bosh himself stirred up public interest in the NBA and the league recorded the highest TV ratings in around a decade for the NBA Finals.

However this is also the reason most NBA fans cannot get their head around why the NBA has chosen this moment to fight over money with its players. If the two sides involved in the labour dispute cannot come to an amicable solution soon, the damage done to the fan base could be very long lasting indeed.

This isn't a measure of character.

This is a measure of characters.

This week, we're ranking the 10 biggest characters in the NBA today.

What, exactly, do we mean when we call someone a "character"? In a word: distinctiveness. A player could be funny. He could be strange. He could be downright weird. All of these traits — either in combination or on their own — might qualify a player for inclusion on this list.

Video: Al Golden eagerly awaits NCAA reinstatement

Shaquille O' Neal, Rasheed Wallace, Jason Williams — all of them are characters. Too bad they're now retired.

Think a player's ranking is too high or too low? Voice your opinion by writing in the comments field below.

Mickael Pietrus

Characters ranking: 8th

Current team: Phoenix Suns

Height/weight: 6-6/215

Age on Nov. 1, 2011: 29

Seasons in NBA: 8

On the court: Pietrus has two specialties. He's a good perimeter defender. And he specializes in shooting 3-pointers, especially corner 3s. Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy often said that Pietrus was his team's most talented perimeter defender, but Van Gundy also added that Pietrus' intensity level on defense waned when he wasn't hitting shots.

What makes him a character: Pietrus almost always seems like he's in a good mood. "I don't have two or three faces," he once told the Orlando Sentinel. "I only got one. That's me. Planet Pietrus. Life's good." And if you want proof of that, just watch this video in which he describes what it was like for him and J.J. Redick to fly from Chicago to Detroit when they were sick during the 2010-11 season. . . . Indeed, Pietrus has a spacey sense of humor. In May 2010, he said he was going to grow his hair until the Magic won the NBA title. "I might even let a fan cut my hair if we win the championship," he said. "No scissors. I can't give anybody scissors. I give them clippers. They can keep my hair if they want it." . . . Pietrus occasionally spun records at local nightclubs as a hobby. . . . He also says he's a great cook.

In an Aug. 18 story about seven former players suing the NFL over the league’s handling of concussion-related injuries, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Joe Thomas of the Cleveland Browns was a member of the lawsuit, relying on information provided from the plaintiff’s attorney in the case. The former player involved in the case is Joseph “Joey” Thomas, of Seattle.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Indianapolis Colts fell to 0-2 in the preseason, dominated by the Washington Redskins 16-3 at Lucas Oil Stadium. 

The final numbers were ugly, as the Redskins finished ahead 415-150 in total yardage, 215-55 in rushing yardage, 22-8 in first downs and 36:29-23:31 in time of possession. 

Tim Hightower gashed the Colts on a 58-yard run on the second play from scrimmage and Roy Helu had a 51-yard run early in the second quarter. Indianapolis doesn’t much care about preseason results, but it should care about struggling against the run to that degree. 

Strong safety Antoine Bethea left the game after that first big run with an apparent hamstring injury, and the Colts lack of depth at safety showed. 

They were without several receivers too, as Reggie Wayne, Austin Collie and Anthony Gonzalez all sat out. 

The Colts shuffled the offensive line some in practice, but didn’t carry it all over to the game as Ryan Diem started at right tackle and Mike Pollak at right guard. The first team offensive line had two false starts -- back-to-back penalties against Pollak and left guard Joe Reitz. Pollak’s replacement, Kyle DeVan, got one in the first half too. 

While there were spurts of good pass pressure, including three sacks of Washington starter John Beck, he threw for 140 yards and posted a 101 passer rating. 

The Colts’ star of the game was Pat McAfee. The punter averaged 57.3 yards on four punts with a 46-yard net average.

The NBA owners contend that they will suffer an estimated $300 million in combined losses for this 2011-12 season. The players’ union believes that number is significantly smaller, owning to alternative accounting methods. Both sides remain far apart overall in negotiations of a new collective bargaining agreement, fanning fears of an extended labor lockout after the current pact expires June 30.So, NBA commissioner David Stern was asked Wednesday, what level of financial losses would the league find acceptable? The question got a swift rebuke from Stern.“We’re not going to lose any money,” Stern said. “I’m not going to be commissioner of a league that is comfortable [losing money]. Because I don’t have a group of owners who find it acceptable for me to have that conversation with them.“You don’t have $4 billion worth of revenue and pay out over $2 billion in salary and benefits to lose money. It’s something that we have sort of gotten used to as the revenues have gone up … but the world has changed about the prospect for all franchises, the world has changed for a lot of reasons – and economically – and now people who make investments in buildings and things expect not to lose money.”Stern was in town to formally present the NBA Most Valuable Player Award to Chicago’s Derrick Rose before tipoff of Game 2 of the Bulls-Hawks playoff series at United Center. In meeting with reporters, Stern declined to respond to reports that the union was unhappy with the owners’ latest proposal, delivered last week.He did expound more freely on Rose and one reporter’s mention in the same sentence of Rose and Michael Jordan. Not that Stern was in a comparing mood.“I do know that he is the youngest MVP, that he deserves the award that he’s getting tonight, he had a heckuva season and he’s a heckuva teammate,” the commissioner said. “So you can check it all off – he’s a heck of a player.“If we can keep him healthy, he’s going to have some career. And there are a lot of players who would like him not have this trophy next year.”

On paper, sports don’t get much better than Tuesday night. You had three games in the NBA Playoffs, plus three more in the NHL, two of which were Game 7s. It’s the sort of thing that tests your skills as a sports fan.
How well can you manage a remote? Can you sense when a game’s getting out of hand and it’s time to pull the plug? Can you time each intermission so that you don’t miss a single minute, while also managing to use that time to show human emotion to your significant other? The playoffs aren’t just crunch time for the players. This is when sports fans prove themselves too.
Of course, it’s also when some sports fans get petty and defensive about the amount of attention their favorite sport is or isn’t getting from the mainstream media. Exhibit A, from Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky:It’s totally irrelevant and we probably shouldn’t even waste time arguing about it, but just for the record, the premise behind Barry’s argument is flawed. What does a “real” sports fan do on a night like Tuesday night? Tries to have his (or her!) cake and eat it too.
A real sports fan is terrified to choose one or the other, for fear of missing something huge.
For instance, I watched basketball all night but kept an eye on hockey the whole time. And as soon as the Hornets-Lakers game was getting out of hand in Los Angeles, I switched to Versus to catch the final five or six minutes of the Blackhawks game, which was still close and ended up being one of the coolest hockey games I’ve ever seen.
Does it make me less of a sports fan that I missed almost three periods of scoreless hockey to watch Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant go head-to-head? Or more of a sports fan, because I (pretty much) got to watch the best parts of both games? Point is, REAL sports fans don’t choose one or the other; if at all possible, they choose both.
Speaking of which… the whole discussion got me thinking. You know what I would watch over either playoff basketball or playoff hockey? Basketball players trying to play hockey.
Forget worrying about wins and losses and championships; it’d be the single most entertaining spectacle of the year. Who wouldn’t watch to see Chris Bosh and Lamar Odom try to play in the NHL? So with that in mind, drawing on the hard-earned hockey expertise you can get from playing NHL 2011 on Xbox, I decided to take this a step further. Without further ado, the NBA Playoffs NHL All-Stars.

The NFL takes a weird, almost uncomfortable break from its lockout this week with the college draft. Players will be drafted, eventually signed by the their new teams and then told to get lost until owners and the players’ union figure out how to split up the league’s $9 billion in annual revenue.
It has been 45 days since the NFLPA decertified and players sued the owners to stop an impending lockout. There have been no trades and no free agents signed since then, and teams will have to use their first-round picks Thursday to address immediate roster needs. No more taking the best player available or reaching for a rawer athlete who has more upside than great college numbers.
Or you would think …
Incorrectly.
Take the Raiders, who would seem to have obvious needs at offensive line and the secondary, but head coach Hue Jackson said Oakland wouldn’t pass up a better player at a different position when it drafts at No. 48, the team’s first pick.
“You’re always looking,” Jackson said. “If there’s a great player out there, I don’t want to pass him up if we have a chance to put him on our team and he’s a true difference-maker for this organization. I don’t think anybody would. So, there’s no position that we wouldn’t look at. It’s a very young, talented team that we have.”
The Raiders were 8-8 last season, and owner Al Davis thought enough of the team’s talent that he fired head coach Tom Cable for posting the team’s best record since 2002.
Washington, on the other hand, seemed lucky to finish 6-10 and has glaring needs – but Redskins general manager Bruce Allen agrees with Jackson about this draft.
“I think the draft process is pretty standard,” the former Raiders senior executive told the Washington Post. The lockout “really hasn’t changed the way we evaluate the players.
“A lot of people, in previous years, go by the draft board, and go by the rating. Don’t try to over-reach on a player. Obviously, if you thought someone was going to go, you might have to take him a half-a-round higher than you would have projected. We’re going to follow our draft board. And I think that’s the safest way to do it. If it’s a position we feel we have a need, then that works out even better for us.”
And if a team doesn’t fill a need now, then it can do that whenever the labor strife ends and there is a free-agency period. Because there will be a free-agency period – it might last only a week if this mess pushes into August, but there will be one.
There is one glaring exception: What having the draft before free agency does is make some teams desperate for quarterbacks – even in what was originally thought to be a mediocre class. It’s not like there are a lot of difference-makers sitting out there on the market, so teams better make sure they get one Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
“There’s going to be a feeding frenzy for quarterbacks because of the lack of free agency,” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said. “Since 1950, I don’t think there have been eight quarterbacks taken in the first three rounds. I think that’s going to happen this year. There’s probably seven of the top 10 teams (in the draft) that need quarterbacks.”
Which should suit the Raiders just fine. Jackson said he has all the confidence in the world in starter Jason Campbell and backup Kyle Boller, and they’re both 29 years old. Oakland also should benefit in that this draft is well stocked with defensive linemen, and the Raiders are deep at both end and tackle already.
“Yeahhhhhhh,” Jackson said. “I want it to be that way. I want everybody to take all the players that we don’t want and leave the players for us that we do want. That’s what I am looking for.”
Taiwan Jones update: There was a report that Eastern Washington running back Taiwan Jones missed a meeting with the Raiders because he was late getting back from a visit in Miami. His agent said there was only talk of a meeting – no time was ever set.
Jones, from Antioch, ran a 4.27 40 at his pro day and his stock has risen quickly with every comparison made to Jamaal Charles and Chris Johnson. Mayock recently predicted that Jones would be a second-round pick – surely too high for the Raiders, who are well-stocked at running back.

Alec Burks made the right decision in choosing to end his college career and leave Colorado for the NBA.Why? Money, of course. The opportunity to make lots of it.
Burks announced his decision Thursday at the Dal Ward Center during a press conference in which he sat next to coach Tad Boyle, while most of his teammates watched from the back of the room.
He acknowledged he was originally inclined to stay for another year, but his mother, Dina, encouraged him to leave. Thank goodness for moms.
Burks would have been crazy and just plain foolish not to jump at the opportunity to make millions in at least a three-year guaranteed salary.
Fortunately, he had a mother wise enough to explain that to him and convince him it was the right move.
No, money isn`t everything and having a lot of it will certainly bring along some headaches the rest of us don`t experience, but money also prevents a lot of problems and stress and allows for a richer life, so to speak.
That is certainly what Dina and Steve Burks have wanted for their two sons from the time they brought them into the world.
The fact is Burks would have been at serious risk of losing his opportunity to earn his millions had he returned to play for Boyle.
All it takes is one misstep, one wrong landing, one collision with an opponent and Burks could suffer a seriousinjury that might rob him of the opportunity to fulfill his dream of playing in the NBA, not to mention the financial repercussions.
Burks has said from the beginning that he would have a tough time turning down the lure of the NBA and its riches if he was considered one of the top 14 picks in the draft, a lottery pick. And he played well enough during his sophomore season to earn that distinction, if you put any stock in what scouts and other NBA decision makers are saying he is a top-10 pick at this point.
Players picked at that point in the draft can generally count on making at least $6 million. Some make much more.
Let`s hope Burks is wise enough to be smart with the money he makes and doesn`t end up another sad story of a professional athlete who is somehow strapped for cash a few years after the game passes him by and the checks stop rolling in.
Now that the decision has been made, it`s time to look ahead to what the Buffs might be in the 2011-12 season in their first season in the Pac-12 Conference and playing without Burks.
CU won`t have a NBA-ready talent, at least not one that is apparent in April, but it will have a nice corps of returning talent along with some intriguing new faces.
The biggest question might be who will do the scoring lost in the departure of Burks and seniors Cory Higgins, Levi Knutson and Marcus Relporde?
There was reason to believe that if Burks returned, the Buffs could be one of the best teams in the conference because of the additions of transfers such as Carlon Brown from Utah and Jeremy Adams from junior college, along with the return of Andre Roberson and injured big man Shane Harris-Tunks.
Now it`s safe to say the Buffs will be picked somewhere in the middle of the Pac. Those players have to carry the load as Boyle brings along a talented group of three true freshmen from California.
No one would have liked to have Burks back next year more than Boyle, but the Buffs` coach didn`t seem particularly worried about his program losing its best player. That`s a good sign.
“Obviously we`re better with him than we are without him, but this doesn`t change the course that Colorado basketball is on,” Boyle said.
Boyle is quietly confident that Thursday`s press conference won`t be the last of its kind for years to come in Boulder.
If forward Andre Roberson continues to develop at the rate he did in one year under Boyle, he could be having a similar gathering two years from now following his junior season.
A year ago at this time, Boyle was busy recruiting Burks. Maybe convincing is a better word. He flew to Kansas City to visit with Burks` mother and talked with her son about how his style of play would allow Burks a lot of freedom on the court.
Burks was considering entering the draft and also transferring schools because CU didn`t hire his preferred choice in coaches, but he ultimately opted to give Boyle a shot.
A year later, there is no doubt he made the right call.
It was the first step in what turned out to be a great sophomore season. I`d be surprised if a year from now we aren`t saying he made another wise move with his decision to get paid for his talents.

Markus Naslund should have kept his head up.
All these years later, the fans who decried Steve Moore’s unpenalized, concussion-causing head hit on the Canucks captain and used it to justify the terrible, career-ending revenge Todd Bertuzzi took on Moore have finally been forced to confront the truth.
Naslund should have had his head up. Shouldn’t have been reaching for the puck. Should have been aware that someone was coming from his blind side.
Moore delivered a clean hit, under the rules – every bit as clean as the one with which Canucks’ Raffi Torres blew up Chicago’s Brent Seabrook in Game 3 of their playoff series Sunday evening . . . other than the interference part.
If you’re OK with one, you can’t complain about the other.
Like Torres, Moore had no interest in the puck, but saw a vulnerable player reaching for it, concentrating on it. Saw the opportunity, and took it. Lowered the shoulder, hit his opponent in the head, and c’est la vie.
Each hitter was subject to no discipline – well, Torres got a minor for interference, because Seabrook hadn’t touched the puck yet, but otherwise he did nothing wrong. Moore received no penalty at all. His hands, and his conscience, were clean.
So there it is: history, all neatly tied up with a bow.
Of course, there will always be those bleeding-heart, namby-pamby sissies who say that there is no such thing as a clean blow to the head, but those people aren’t real hockey fans. It’s a man’s game. If you don’t like it, go play golf.
Sure, it would have been nice to see what Naslund, without that concussion, might have continued to achieve on a line with Brendan Morrison and Bertuzzi, if the big winger hadn’t been suspended for his subsequent assault on Moore. They had something special together, the West Coast Express, and it all began to unravel the day Naslund didn’t watch where he was going.
It was his own fault. Definitely not Moore’s, who was only finishing his check.
Anyway, a diminished career here or there is a small price to pay to keep head hits legal.
What would the game be without them?