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The likelihood of an NBA lockout — and a long one, at that — is already high.But it would be even higher if there were no discussions being had, as less than two months remain before the league’s collective bargaining agreement expires. According to a source close to the situation, however, that’s not the case.The source confirmed an ESPN.com report that commissioner David Stern and union chief Billy Hunter met in Chicago last week, and told SI.com that the two have been meeting “once a week for the last couple of weeks.” And according to a second source close to the situation, Stern and Hunter are scheduled to meet in New York this Friday and next.How productive those meetings might be is another matter entirely.After the ice between the two sides seemed to melt mildly during an All-Star weekend meeting in Los Angeles, the owners sent their latest proposal to the players last week. But it was, according to one of the sources, a “rehash” of the previous plan.NBPA president and Lakers guard Derek Fisher indicated as much at his team’s practice facility on Tuesday, where he discussed the labor situation that will now move even higher on his priority list in light of the Lakers’ loss to Dallas in the Western Conference semifinals.”The NBA sent their recent proposal about a week or so ago, and we were able to take a pretty good look at it,” he said. “Frankly, we’re disappointed in the context of it and we’re still full steam ahead in trying to get this thing figured out and getting a deal done. In terms of a timeline, how things will unfold, it’s hard to say right now.”While the players have shown a willingness to take less than the 57 percent of basketball-related income that they currently receive, they continue to resist the owners’ desire for a hard cap and salary rollbacks, totaling some $800 million. Fisher has been in contact with Hunter throughout the process, but he will be able to dedicate far more time to the task at hand now.”I still worked on it daily [during the playoffs], but Billy didn’t bombard me with too many calls or too many things unless it was vital,” Fisher said. “Now, it’s 24/7.”So does this mean it’s Fisher-to-the-rescue time and more hope for fans who don’t want to see next season cut short?”It’s hard for me to [say] that one, but hopefully at the end of the day we’ll be able to look at it that way,” Fisher continued. “We haven’t really gotten a chance to flush it all the way out because of what we’ve been doing, but now there’s time.”Fisher said the ongoing NFL lockout continues to affect the NBA situation.The NFL and its players failed to reach an agreement on how to divvy up $9 billion in annual revenue, as owners seek a bigger piece of the pie to help with major investments and expenditures, and players resist any pay cuts. A judge briefly lifted the lockout two weeks ago, but a federal appeals court issued a temporary stay, meaning players cannot access team facilities or participate in any activities. The injunction hearing is set for June 3, just three months before the season is tentatively scheduled to begin.”I do think that what is taking place on the NFL side is impacting the speed at which this process is playing out,” Fisher said. “At the end of the day, we still have to come back to, ‘What do you have? What’s in place?’ What we have is an unbelievable game full of unbelievable players, and people have continued to support this game in the last few years, which doesn’t compare to any other time in pro basketball. They want to see NBA basketball.”[But] I think both sides, as bad as we want to get a deal done, are going to be careful how we proceed on these matters. As much as the NBA speaks about the future of the game and trying to protect the game itself, that’s a priority of ours as well.”

Ray Edwards standing in full boxing gear talking about becoming the greatest fighter who ever lived would seem odd if this weren’t already the strangest offseason in NFL history.
But here we are in lockout mode. An unsigned 26-year-old pass rusher in the prime of his career is in limbo for who knows how long. Edwards is not allowed to choose his future team and considers his Vikings career over, even if league rules were to declare him a restricted free agent.
“They put a first-round tender on me (a one-year, $2.8 million contract), but even if that holds up, there’s no way I will play for less than what my backup got in his new contract,” said Edwards, referring to Brian Robison’s three-year, $14.1 million deal, which included a $6.5 million signing bonus. “There’s no way I would play here.”With millions of dollars riding on the outcome of the NFL’s labor battle, Edwards still shrugs and says he “couldn’t care less” about the lockout. At the moment, he’s a boxer fulfilling a childhood dream.
His goals, however, are serious and astronomical, to say the least. The journey toward them begins with a four-round ring debut at 7:30 p.m. CDT on May 20 at Grand Casino Hinckley. He will fight Duluth, Minn.’s T.J. Gibson, a 34-year-old former amateur champion kickboxer who also is making his traditional boxing debut.
Edwards said the fight will go on even if the lockout ends and the league year begins before then. The Falcons reportedly have targeted him as a free agent or a sign-and-trade possibility if he’s restricted. That’s millions of dollars that could be put on hold for a boxing deal that Edwards said comes with a $5,000 guarantee and 50 percent of the gate.
There’s also the injury factor to consider, even though the defensive end will tower over his opponent. Edwards is 6-5 and 255 pounds. Gibson is 5-9 and 210.
“I’m not worried,” Edwards said. “Nobody will get close enough to hurt me. I’m not making any guarantee, but I will get the job done. I’m not trying to go out there just to say that I did it.”
Staying in shape
Edwards began boxing as a form of conditioning 4½ years ago after meeting Jeff Warner, a Burnsville, Minn., pastor, during Vikings chapel. Warner is a former heavyweight boxer and pro wrestler. He also looks like a man who can claim to own five world brick-breaking records.
Edwards began training more seriously under Warner two years ago when NFL owners opted out of the collective bargaining agreement and set the league in motion toward a lockout. Never one to stand pat, Edwards already was thinking of adding his ring debut to a plate that also includes some modeling and his own clothing line, True Ink.
Edwards and Warner train together five days a week. Three days a week, Edwards comes straight to the gym from a fast-paced, 90-minute power-lifting workout at Higher Power Training in Eden Prairie.
“Ray’s so strong, I get a workout just training the guy,” Higher Power trainer Kevin Kovelan said as he loaded 18 45-pound plates — 810 pounds — onto a leg press machine so Edwards could do a set of 10 reps.
Within an hour of his leg workout, Edwards was in Lakeville for a 90-minute boxing workout with Warner. At one point, Warner turned to an onlooker when Edwards exploded with a right hand that made a pad Warner was holding scream across the room.
“Nobody in the entire world could take that punch,” Warner said.Edwards calls Warner “the Mouth of the North.” That’s saying something considering Edwards’ penchant for fearlessly proclaiming his lofty goals. Of course, Warner starts most conversations about Edwards by calling him “a modern day Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson combined.”
“He could be better than any fighter that’s ever been,” Warner said. “No one has had his combination of strength, speed and balance. No one works like Ray. No one is conditioned like Ray. Look at him.”
There’s no denying Edwards is in top shape. He says he is in the best shape of his life, down 13 pounds from his playing weight. He also says his body fat is down from 15 to 8 percent, and there’s no visible reason to argue.A year ago, Edwards spent a week working out with noted International Boxing Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward at Kronk Gym in Detroit. Steward came away impressed by Edwards’ potential in a weak division.
“I think it’s very, very realistic for him to have an impact in the heavyweight division,” Steward told ESPN. “Ray is a natural boxer in terms of rhythm and coordination. But it’s his speed that surprised me because he is such an extremely big guy.
“With the proper training and regular fights, I would say in about 10 months he could be a serious threat to any middle-of-the-road or Class B heavyweight. . . . Ray would be a tough match for any heavyweight outside of the top 12 in the world.”
Taking a shot
Joey Abell, one of the top professional heavyweights in Minnesota, sparred with Edwards last month.
“He has what it takes physically to be better than 90 percent of anybody who’s just getting into boxing,” said Abell, who is 27-5 with 26 wins by knockout. “He’s big and strong, but he’s green. I took it easy on him because you can’t go too fast in this sport. You have to learn things. You have to learn how to get hit. I don’t think Ray’s ever been punched before.”
Gibson said he is a Vikings fan but didn’t know who Edwards was until he got the call about fighting him. The size differential doesn’t bother him.
“No man intimidates me,” Gibson said. “I’ll be ready. Let’s hope he’s ready. If he knocks me out, he must be good because I’ve never been knocked out in kickboxing. If I knock him out, I hope you guys have your cameras ready.”
Edwards not only expects to beat Gibson, but he said he thinks he “can definitely bring the world heavyweight championship belt back to the United States, where it belongs.” Ukrainian brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko own four of the five major world heavyweight titles.
“Just by watching them, I think my footwork is better than theirs, I think my conditioning is better than theirs, I think my heart is so much better than theirs,” Edwards said. “I think my thinking game is bar none. I think I could go in there and mix it up and come out with a win.”
Busy schedule
Edwards has a second fight tentatively scheduled for June. He is assuming he will still be fighting because he figures the Vikings will still control his rights.
“They have yet to offer me a new contract, just to say, ’We’re interested in you,’” Edwards said. “Sometimes, there’s an odd man out. I believe I’m the odd man out.”

Few players have felt the labor battle’s impact as Edwards has. Under normal circumstances, he would have experienced a giant free-agency payday coming off a breakout 2009 season in which he had 8½ sacks during the regular season and four more in two playoff games.
But his four seasons of service was no longer enough for unrestricted free agency once the owners opted out of the CBA. Six years were required, so Edwards played under a $2.52 million, one-year tender in 2010. It’s uncertain what the rules will be in 2011.
“If the NFL plays, it plays, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” Edwards said. “The Bible says control things you can and don’t worry about things you can’t. Right now, I’m a boxer.”

The draft is over; the picks have been made. Now, the next step for the teams of the NFL is to plug these missing pieces into their existing systems.
Unfortunately, a lockout is still in place.
With the issuing of an injunction that temporarily reinstated the NFL lockout, owner and players have resumed bickering and prevented any signing of draft picks or organized offseason activities. While some players have organized unofficial practices, many are left to train on their own, while coaches are left hoping their team is able to start the season in shape.
Not only that, but with teams unable to look at the free agent pool and make offers; many holes are left unfilled, even after the draft
Of course, from a fan’s perspective, we all would just like to see the Kansas City Chiefs on the field again sometime soon. Until the lockout is lifted, though, we Chiefs fans are left with one question:
How does the lockout affect the Chiefs?
Unfortunately, the answer will not make Chiefs fans happy.
With the NFL draft over, the Chiefs have acquired many young players that are expected to make an immediate impact in the 2011 season.  While they are able to continue working out and stay in shape, there will be a huge developmental curve that they will not be able to climb as quickly as other years’ draft picks.
Several of the draft picks are raw and are in need of coaching to succeed at the next level. With picks like offensive lineman Rodney Hudson and defensive back Jalil Brown, the earlier a coach can get with them, the better. In fact, one theme with most of the nine draft picks seems to be their major need for the discipline that comes from position coaches to go with their natural athletic ability.
While these players are attempting to prepare for the NFL, several Chiefs offensive players are trying to figure out how to prepare.
After the departure of offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, a coach with a very distinctive coaching style, the Chiefs brought in Bill Muir to fill the position. Players are not only left feeling unsure of Muir’s plans, but may are left feeling unsure if they even have a spot in Muir’s plans.
A lack of preparation could be detrimental to a Chiefs passing game that, while effective, ranked a paltry 30th in the NFL last season.
In 2010, Matt Cassel and the Chiefs’ passing game stalled at the beginning of the season, only scoring one touchdown in the first two games. Week 3 saw Cassel begin his Pro Bowl-caliber play.
With that early season performance coming after the Chiefs were able to go through their full allotment of offseason training, the likelihood of another early season slump only increases with the time off of the field. The addition of rookie wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin will only add to the uncertainty surrounding the passing game.
While many teams are in the exact same boat as Kansas City, the Chiefs may experience the worst of it. With a young team that, despite their successes last season, is still very inexperienced, extra time off could be detrimental to the preparation that is necessary for continued success, particularly with a much more difficult schedule in 2011.
The lockout will prove to be one of the greatest tests for this Chiefs team. If they are able to overcome the work stoppage and prepared to start the season, 2011 could be the season Chiefs fans have dreamed of. If the lockout continues, though, they could just as easily be woefully unprepared.
Either way, the uncertainty guarantees an interesting season

On the day Wayne Gretzky was born, Jan. 26, 1961, the Trail Smoke Eaters embarked upon a seven-week, 40,000-kilometre, 26-game European road trip that would make hockey history -ending as it did on March 12 with their wonderful world championship win in Geneva, Switzerland.
What the Smokies did after returning to their tiny company town in the West Kootenay region of B.C. would eventually ensure them a special place in the annals of oldtimer hockey, and that too is a proud accomplishment.
“We woke up the Canadian people to the fact you could play hockey in your 50s,” said Cal Hockley, who was the Smokies captain in 1961. “We kept playing.”
A group of them would routinely drive nine hours to the Lower Mainland on a Friday, play two or three old-timers games on the weekend and be back at work Monday morning, many of them at Cominco, the smelter that dominates Trail’s economy and landscape. In 1974, still playing and still popular, and accompanied by their wives this time, the Smokies went back to Switzerland and Sweden and faced off with some of the same players they had met 13 years earlier.
“I think that started a fire under old-timers hockey in this country,” said Hockley. “Now a lot of guys are playing into their late 40s and 50s.”
That second European tour was easier on the Smokies than the first gruelling odyssey.
“It was an easy-going trip, eh. A few beer here and there,” recalled Walt Peacosh. “That trip in ’74, the nicest part was we went back to Switzerland first and we stopped at the Royal Hotel where we stayed when we had won it. We walked in there. The Italian bartender was still there and he started crying when he saw us.
“We didn’t have no dressing room in Lausanne, eh, so we had to come back to the hotel with our uniforms on. So we used to hold our pants out and he’d stick a couple quarts in there for us.
“It was nice in Sweden too. They treated us really good. And it was packed houses, eh. I couldn’t believe it.”
It has been 50 years since the Smoke Eaters beat the Soviet Union 5-1 in the final game of the 1961 IIHF world championship and came home to a heroes’ welcome, paraded through the streets of Trail on a fire truck. The surviving Smokies are all in their 70s and 80s now, the championship and even their old-timers heydays long gone.
Peacosh, whose change of speed forever befuddled opponents, hasn’t been on skates for 20 years. He played a year with the Vancouver Canucks in the old Western Hockey League, he was that good. He’s 75 now and happily retired in Kimberley.
“I played for 50 years. I quit at 55. Very lucky. No problems. I had a good time, a lot of friends. No money, but. …”
The titanium implant in one of Ed Cristofoli’s knees forced him to stay off the blades at a time when he was thinking about coaching his grandkids.
“Three months after I got that knee done I went off a ladder and almost ripped the whole leg apart. I thought you know, dummy, time to give it up. So I haven’t been on skates in 20 years. Or I would be playing. I’d still like to be playing. But I realized somebody is telling me something. You get old. Some guys are lucky. They’ve got a good body, good knees. And some guys are playing into their 50s and 60s.
“I would like to, but I’m not 50 or 60 any more either. I’m in my 70s and I was the youngest guy [on the Smokies] I think. Geez.”
Twelve of them, including goalie Seth Martin, Norm Lenardon, Harry Smith, Peacosh, Hockley and Cristofoli, gathered in Trail in early March for a 50th anniversary celebration of their world title. Locals packed the Royal Theatre, all 396 seats, for some speeches and the screening of the documentary For The Love of the Game: A Century of Hockey in Trail, B.C.
They all took time to remember the late Bobby Kromm, their playing coach, as well as the late Addy Tambellini and Claude Cyr. Smith donated a painting of their on-ice team photo to the City of Trail archives.
A 7½-minute Swiss newsreel of highlights from the Smokies’ wins over the United States and Soviets was also shown and they guys got to see how good they were again.
“Bobby always said ‘I really believe we could have walked right into the [National Hockey League] with a couple, three guys and we would have held our own.’ I believe him,” said Cristofoli.
In the 1960s, the best players in the country wound up in the NHL, but it didn’t expand from its original six to a 12-team circuit until 1967.
The trickle down effect was felt in the Western Hockey League. And the glut of good hockey players also turned to the Western International Hockey League. Those players held down regular day jobs, often in their home towns, and played high-level hockey at night in places like Trail, Nelson, Kimberley and Cranbrook, as well as Spokane, Washington.
Though it was good to get together en masse again last month, since many of the Smokies were born and raised in Trail and area and never left, they do bump into one another on occasion.
“If you don’t see them downtown, you run into them at the clinic,” laughed Cristofoli.
He worked in the trades for 20 years for Cominco, then moved into management. After 37 years as a company man, he was done.
“I didn’t want to hang around to get a gold medal or whatever it was.”
He already had a gold medal and during a telephone interview last week he fished around a drawer in his house until he found it.
“Oh, you’ve got to see this one, compared to what the guys are getting now. Here it is. Picture of a goalie on it. Says ‘champions du monde.’ ” That’s what they are. Champions of the world.
They all laugh that they’re so old now that nobody remembers them.
But it’s not true. They did something amazing and the people of Trail most certainly remember.
The Smokies criss-crossed Europe -playing in Norway, Finland, Sweden, the Soviet Union, East Berlin and West Germany, Switzerland and Italy -for seven weeks and won the last world title claimed by a Canadian amateur squad. A group of NHLers would finally win another in 1994. Then again in 1997, 2003, 2004 and 2007.
The 2011 tournament starts Friday as Team Canada takes on Belarus in Kosice, Slovakia, more than 50 years after the Smokies danced through the tournament unbeaten at 6-0-1, outscored their opponents 45-11, put Smith, Darryl Sly, Michel Legace and Martin on the all-star team, and emerged with gold.
“You know what, we ate what they gave us, we stayed where they put us and we made the best of it,” said Cristofoli. “We were a good team.”

Including this afternoon’s Game 5 between the Rangers and the Capitals, “The NBC Sports Group” will televise a quadruple-header of NHL playoff contests today.
The NBC Sports Group is made up primarily of NBC and its soon-to-be-renamed cable affiliate Versus. They will be the NHL’s television home for the next 10 seasons as well after agreeing to a broadcast rights contract announced Tuesday that will bring about $200 million in revenue to the league annually.
In deciding to stick with NBC/Versus, the NHL passed on a chance to return to ESPN, which would have given the league access to about 20 million more households and better lead-in programming. Fox and Turner also expressed interest, but NBC/Versus had the right to match any offer as part of its expiring contract and was determined to keep the NHL.
So it probably was a foregone conclusion that the NHL wasn’t changing networks. Having ESPN involved did drive up the bidding for the NHL, though, and bring in some additional revenue, which the players surely will appreciate.
For all that ESPN’s family of networks has to offer, it probably was the best thing for the NHL to stick with NBC/Versus. Particularly on Versus, it will be a centerpiece of its programming rather than the nearly-forgotten stepchild behind Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA.
While ESPN was involved in the bidding, there was a noticeable increase in the amount of attention it gave to the NHL on “SportsCenter.” That probably will fade again, now that it won’t have a chance at getting the broadcast rights for another 10 years, but the hope is that Versus, with the backing of its Comcast owners, will continue to grow as a competitor to the Disney-owned empire.
The NBC Sports Group will combine to telecast 100 regular-season contests and will have exclusive rights to the final three rounds of the playoffs. Comcast/NBC is paying about $2 billion for the rights to do that, so it will be rooting for the league to succeed nearly as much as its fans.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Cubs starter Braden Looper said “nothing came easy” for him Sunday against the Diamondbacks, and he didn’t even mention the emergency warning that blasted over the public-address system during his second inning of work.
Looper stepped off the mound as the accidental warning told fans to leave the ballpark, but only because he wanted to go with a different pitch.
“I think the umpire (Clint Fagan) thought I was listening to that,” he said. “I wasn’t even listening. … It had nothing to do with it. It took a little while (to regroup) after that too.”
Looper got out of the inning with one run, and was pleased with his outing. In his first start since the end of the 2009 season, he allowed one run on five hits over 3 2/3 innings, keeping himself near the top of the list in the battle for two rotation spots.
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The 36-year-old, who sat out the 2010 season, was a reliever with the Marlins, Mets and Cardinals the first eight years of his career before joining the Cardinals’ rotation in 2007. The last three Aprils he has pitched, Looper is 9-2 with a 2.77 earned-run average.
The Cubs were the only team Looper said he would come out of retirement to play for, since he lives near Orland Park and wants to stay near his family.
“I’ve got a long ways to go, but I think today was a positive step in the right direction,” he said. “Hopefully we can make more positive steps.”
One more time: Marlon Byrd has been working out with BALCO founder Victor Conte for a few years, but a recent segment about Conte on HBO’s “Real Sports” brought their relationship back in the spotlight.
“You guys are going to ask me questions about it all the time,” Byrd said Sunday, after being asked about Conte for the third time this spring.
He said the media would probably bring it up again “when I have 20 homers at the break.” But Byrd added that he understood why he was always going to be “scrutinized” for his relationship with Conte.
“Victor put a black cloud over baseball,” he said. “So everybody knows about the BALCO issues, and everybody knows I work with him. You try to move forward. When I put up good numbers, some people are going to say certain things, but that happens with anybody that comes out of the woodwork and puts up good numbers.”
Extra innings: Outfield prospect Matt Szczur, a star wideout at Villanova, grounded out in his only at-bat. … Starlin Castro ranked fourth among Cactus League hitters on Sunday with a .433 average.

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