July 9, 1996: The NBA imposes a lockout after contract talks between the league and the players' union broke down due to a disagreement over roughly $50M in profit sharing from NBA TV contracts. The lockout was lifted less than three hours later. 📺 WNBC
"Did you enjoy the NBA lockout this morning? It lasted less than three hours as they squabbled over one last contract detail. As a result, free agents can be signed starting Thursday at five o'clock. The brief lockout even had dream team members unsure if they would play their game against China tomorrow night. They got very fortunate because we want to play tomorrow night. The lockout was in effect. Well, I guess since he's one of the captains, we got to follow whatever the captain says. I wasn't aware of that, but I'm sure if that were to happen or whatever, we have a vote and whatever the team says, we do. We are here to represent our country in USA basketball. We can definitely put whatever is going on in the NBA behind us and be supportive of USA basketball."
💬 Discussion
July 9, 1996: The NBA imposes a lockout after contract talks between the league and the players' union broke down due to a disagreement over roughly $50M in profit sharing from NBA TV contracts. The lockout was lifted less than three hours later. 📺 WNBC