MIAMI — The 2010-11 NBA season ended at 10:51 Sunday night here, with the memorable scene of an emotional Dirk Nowitzki racing off the court seconds before the final buzzer.
After midnight, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were seen being wheeled out of American Airlines Arena in a golf cart in silence while Nowitzki exited to a group of 500 screaming fans — many from Germany, all in Mavericks jerseys.
Whether NBA players return to the arena before Christmas is the conversation now that the Mavericks are world champions and James is a worldwide punchline.
A lockout that appears a near certainty is 17 days away — with the collective bargaining agreement expiring June 30. The NBA Draft will be held June 23, but the free-agent period, beginning July 1, likely will be zapped.
“We’re meeting on a regular basis,” Players Association attorney Ron Klempner told The Post yesterday.
Actually, the labor meetings are shifting from Dallas — where two were held last week during the NBA Finals — to the Big Apple. According to an NBA source, meetings will resume later this week.
Good luck. Both sides indicated last week how wide the gulf stands on the key issues — length of contracts, amount of guaranteed money, size of the new salary cap and the overriding dispute — the split of the revenue between owners and players.
“I’d say they won’t even start seriously negotiating until November, the first week the players are supposed to start receiving their checks again for next season,” one industry source told The Post during the Chicago draft combine. Already there has been speculation of a repeat of the 50-game season that occurred in 1998-99, with the season commencing in January.
The shame of it? The NBA is coming off a sensational good versus evil Finals with the Mavericks outlasting the despised Miami Dream Team, 4-2. The NBA announced yesterday it was the most watched Finals since 2004.
Players Association attorney Jeffrey Kessler said last week after a negotiating session in Dallas: “It’s sort of odd to see the owners say we’re going to destroy this game unless you change this whole system. Players just want to play.”
The No. 1 issue to resolve is the distribution of revenues. The players now get 57 percent. According to a source, the NBA is trying to get 50 percent and change the way the figure is calculated, factoring in new expenses.
Everything flows from there. The owners want a reduction in the size of annual maximum salaries and a decrease in their lengths. The maximum length is six years. The owners want to pare it to three-to-four years, according to a source. Also in dispute is if contracts should be fully guaranteed as they are now.
A source said Knicks owner James Dolan, who is on the negotiating committee and was in Dallas, is ardent on the issue of shorter contracts and less guaranteed money.
“He can’t get Eddy Curry out of his head,” the source said.
Unlike his brethren, Dolan, however, prefers the salary cap stay where it is — as outgoing president Donnie Walsh has provided him maximum cap room in 2012 if it stays in the $57 million range. The owners have talked of reducing it to $45 million — which would kill the Knicks’ chances of adding quality players around Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.
Another issue not in the Knicks’ favor is the owners’ push for revenue sharing since the Garden is among the most profitable outfits.
“I just take it as a real positive that we’re continuing to meet,” Stern said in Dallas. “When you have parties like this, it’s just as easy if you don’t think that there’s the possibility of a breakthrough to say, ‘All right, let’s pack it in and let’s go home.’ But nobody on either side wants to go home.”