Strike talks end indicating NHL season will not start this year\nNEW YORK -- The NHL and the players' association broke off talks Thursday as the clock ticked down to a weekend deadline for saving what little is left of the season.\n"It was a pointless meeting," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said after the four-hour session.\n"We're not going to pick up the phone this weekend," union senior director Ted Saskin said. "We're done."\nIt was the second straight day of meetings in Toronto aimed at ending the lockout, but the first full session since commissioner Gary Bettman told the union Wednesday that a deal would need to be ready by the weekend to save the season.\nIf the deadline was intended to pressure the players' association to give into the league's salary-cap demand, it hasn't worked so far.\nDaly said the union brought nothing new to Thursday's meeting. During the meeting at the league's office in Canada, the sides spent 2 1/2 hours huddling separately. Daly said no new meetings were scheduled and that he and Bettman were immediately returning to New York to prepare for a normal work day Friday.\nThat won't be easy because every indication is that it will be the last business day before the NHL becomes the first major North American sports league to lose an entire season to a labor dispute.\n"Since no material progress has been made, and we're within days of having to cancel the season, you're hit with the realization of what you have to do," Daly said.\nHe gave no real hope that a deal could come in time.\n"I don't know I'd say I'm surprised," he said. "I'm disappointed. I hoped that at the end of the day that reason would prevail, that we'd be able to find common ground, and that we'd reach an agreement. That hasn't happened."\nThe lockout has wiped out 824 of the 1,230 regular-season games through Thursday, as well as this weekend's scheduled All-Star game. If the season is canceled, there is no telling when there will be NHL hockey again.
Pacers donate $2.4 million from brawl fines to charities\nINDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Pacers are donating $2.4 million to 11 local charities, money that mostly comes from fines levied against five players for their roles in the Nov. 19 brawl with Detroit Pistons fans.\nThe Pacers asked the NBA to give the money to charities in Indianapolis, and Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh said the request was granted.\n"The incident in Auburn Hills was a low point for the owners, this franchise and the players, and we came out of it determined to make something positive happen for this team and this community," Walsh said Thursday. "We think this does that."\nThe NBA fined Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, Jermaine O'Neal, Anthony Johnson and Reggie Miller for their roles in the Nov. 19 brawl with Detroit Pistons fans. The Pacers also contributed an unspecified amount to charitable donation.\nAll five players attended a news conference to announce the donations, but none took questions.\nArtest, whom NBA commissioner David Stern suspended for the season after the brawl, smiled as he greeted representatives of the agencies and shook hands with some children in attendance.\nWalsh acknowledged that a tarnished image has festered since the brawl, for which the other four players also were suspended.\n"We had a bad five minutes," Walsh said. "We call a press conference to give away money to charity and everybody thinks it's all about Ron."\nOf the team's donation, $1 million will go to the United Way of Central Indiana. The other charities include Riley Hospital for Children, St. Vincent Children's Hospital, Special Olympics Indiana, Indiana Black Expo and Indianapolis Public Schools.
