being proactive, not reactive when spinners have conditions in

The last several months, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have been quietly working hard on a new collective bargaining agreement to avoid a work stoppage, which took place before a deal was struck in 2011.The negotiations have been building toward this week, when a crucial moment in the talks will arrive. Here is a quick explanation of what is taking place:Q: What is the Dec. 15 deadline?A: When the NBA and the players union ended the lockout in 2011, they agreed to a 10-year collective bargaining agreement through 2021. However, a provision allows either side to declare the intention -- by Dec. 15, 2016 -- to opt out of the last four years of the CBA. From the day they signed this contract, both sides knew theyd probably be talking about a new agreement now and not in 2021. That date arrives Thursday.The desire has been to have a new deal done so a replacement plan would be in place, to assure labor peace, at the moment the current one is terminated. If a new CBA isnt in place, either the league or the union -- or perhaps both -- will opt out, and the current CBA will end on June 30, 2017.Q: So if the sides dont agree by Thursday, will there be another lockout?A: Not necessarily. Thursday is a procedural deadline. The real deadline for getting a deal done is July 1 of next year. If the opt-out clause is invoked and there isnt a deal by then, thats when a lockout would begin. There is still lots of time. The true deadline is probably September, when actual training camp time would be lost.However, both sides are motivated to get a deal done, and doing so now, six-plus months early, would be a great sign and assure no disruption in the leagues momentum. If theres a roadblock now, it could end up fostering bad blood. These talks have been framed as a CBA extension, not a new CBA because many issues settled in the previous CBA are being left alone. If the sides have to start from scratch, theres a greater chance problems will arise.Q: Could this deadline be pushed back?A: Sure, the sides could mutually agree to extend it out a few days if they feel theyre in deal range. They have been talking intensively for months now and have settled a lot of matters. The biggest issue is always the split of the revenue pie -- that is what caused the loss of games in 2011 -- and the sides have agreed to leave the current split essentially in place.The players have been getting between 49-51 percent of basketball revenue the past six years, depending on a series of complex factors. As long as that agreement holds, its likely there will be no lost time.Q: So whats the holdup?A: The biggest sticking point is believed to be the licensing deal. This is about the money that comes in from brands that use NBA logos or likenesses of players: jersey sales, video games, the official beer of the NBA, etc. In the past, this agreement has been separate from the CBA, but it appears the sides want to make changes to the contract now.They have been talking for several weeks about this and dont yet have a resolution. But with so many larger matters, and since commissioner Adam Silver and union executive director Michele Roberts are focused on making sure their first CBA together doesnt involve a work stoppage, leaders on both sides believe they can get something done.Q: So why was Carmelo Anthony so pessimistic?A: Anthony is one of the union vice presidents, and he was clearly frustrated in his remarks to ESPN over the weekend. It is typical in complex negotiations for sides to get upset with each other when problems arent resolved quickly. Deadlines also create pressure. That is manifesting itself here.This is clearly a challenge because there was a belief that a deal would be in place by now. On balance, theres been a lot more agreement in major areas, such as revenue split, expansion of the D-League, changes to free agency, changes to extension rules and a joint effort to help retired players.Q: How will this affect this season?A: In several ways. Teams have been waiting to make moves until they see what the new rules are. The future salary cap might change, the size of max contracts might change, and rules about contract extensions might change. If those new rules are finalized and teams can digest them, it may lead to a flurry of trades and perhaps even a contract extension or two as teams position themselves.If theres no deal, it might freeze the transaction market somewhat because teams will be cautious about making deals when they dont know all the new rules.Q: So theres no way games would be lost this season?A: Right, even if theres no deal this week, the current agreement will carry past the NBA Finals and the 2017 draft. All of those events will happen as scheduled. Arizona Diamondbacks Jerseys . Those lessons were more than enough to overwhelm the Utah Jazz. Lou Williams scored 25 points and the Hawks continued their offensive upswing as they rolled to an easy 118-85 victory over the Jazz on Friday night, winning their third straight and for the fourth time in five games. Custom Arizona Diamondbacks Jerseys . LOUIS -- St. http://www.diamondbacksapparelsshop.com/randy-johnson-jersey-c-10/ .com) - The Calgary Flames aim to bounce back from their first regulation home loss of the campaign on Friday night when they host a Detroit Red Wings club that they swept in three meetings a season ago. Curt Schilling Jersey . Luis Suarezs double powered Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Fulham, and Southampton easily overcame Hull 4-1 to continue the south coast clubs impressive start to the season. Liverpool and Southampton sent Chelsea down to fourth place as the west London club was held to 2-2 at home. Zack Greinke Jersey . MORITZ, Switzerland -- Fog prevented downhill racers from getting their Olympic dress rehearsal. A year ago, almost to the day, Australia played a dead Test against England at The Oval. The touring team had been through the darkest of midlands valleys in Birmingham and Nottingham, losing the Ashes in a pair of humiliating defeats that exposed the XI as wholly unsuited to the conditions.But with the urn gone and critics sharpening their caustic prose, the team responded with a far better display in that final Test. They were helped in part by the conditions - it is harder to green up the Oval wicket than those of Edgbaston or Trent Bridge - and also by the reduced intensity of a less consequential Test match.Nevertheless, an innings victory was nothing to be sniffed at, and a fitting farewell for the dual retirees Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers, who were soon to be joined on the sidelines by Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson in addition to the already retired Ryan Harris. A key member of the win was Peter Siddle, an older head ideally suited to English seamers yet somehow ignored until too late to make a difference to the series result.Twelve months on and Colombo seems about to bear witness to a similar sequence. The first two Tests have gone conclusively Sri Lankas way, and the pitch at the SSC is the series fairest if also its driest. Meanwhile, the inclusion of Shaun Marsh has added belated solidity to a batting line-up that could have done with his brand of batting when the destination of the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy was still up for debate.Many a cricket follower likes to poke fun at Marsh, he of the near binary home series against India a few years back, then a series-shaping hundred in South Africa followed immediately by a pair in the next Test and omission from the decider. Then there was the day he was run out for 99 chasing a first Test hundred in Australia - moments that have ensured few cricketers can polarise like him now that Watson in particular has retired from the national team.But at the same time, Marsh is the only member of this squad to have in his possession a Test hundred in Sri Lanka, on debut in Pallekele nearly five years ago. The next Test was played at the SSC, and it was Marshs ever-so-patient 81 that anchored an otherwise wobbly top order. Bizarrely, that match was Marshs last Test match in Asia until this week.The horrors of 2011-12 at home banished him from the Test team for quite some time, meaning he did not figure in the squads to go to India in 2013. He was set to go to the UAE in 2014, before an elbow injury sustained in the IPL necessitated surgery and a delayed start to the 2014-15 season. In both cases, Australian results on tour suggested they could have and indeed did do worse by not having Marsh available to use his mercurial talents in conditions where he was less likely to fall prey to bounce and seam.ddddddddddddMarshs height and reach allow him a decent stretch forward. His power and timing allow him the ability to generate bat speed and scoring zones when he has little pace to work with. Equally, his vast experience in the IPL has given him a level of accomplishment in numerous attacking strokes to spin, and a courage to use them regardless of whether the ball is turning or not. In short, Marsh has a game that can work in this part of the world, a rare gift among contemporary Australian batsmen.One of the key findings of the Australian tour party on this trip is the fact that top six success at home is no sort of indicator for how batsmen will fare in Asia. Before this match, the coach Darren Lehmann contended that changing last summers combination pre-emptively would likely have met with a cold public response. If you have a look at our summer and the way our batters played, he asked, if we didnt take any of those batters, how would we be viewed in the press?Yet it should be among the first lessons learned by any selector that their job is not to curry public favour but to choose winning teams. Earlier in the same press conference, Lehmann had spoken of the importance of batsmen being proactive, not reactive when spinners have conditions in their favour, a maxim he lived by with great success. Selection for Colombo, also including Moises Henriques as a specialist batsman, was nothing if not reactive.As Marsh accumulated calmly on the second afternoon, looking so secure where Joe Burns had been skittish and Usman Khawaja stranded, it was hard to escape the sense that much like Siddle he had been ignored for too long on this tour. Whether or not Australia have other batsmen at home who may also be able to aid the next Asian assignment in India next year remains to be seen, but certainly Peter Handscomb will have his claims.Either way, Lehmann, Rod Marsh and the rest of the selection panel must start to show their proactive side as a matter of urgency. As former Test cricketers, all are conscious of the gravity of their roles, and of a responsibility not to be flippant. But to badly misquote Oscar Wilde: selecting one player too late may be regarded as a misfortune; to do it again starts to look like carelessness. ' ' '