BRIEFLY : NBA UNION OFFERS TO CAP ALL SALARIES.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

The NBA players' union is ready to offer owners an unprecedented concession - a limit on the amount of money any player can earn. The problem Thursday was how to get the offer into the commissioner's hands.

David Stern and union director Billy Hunter spoke by telephone early in the day, and the league issued a news release saying the offer would be forwarded to the owners' labor relations committee.

But the momentum broke down in the afternoon when union attorney Jeffrey Kessler objected to the lack of a face-to-face bargaining session at which the offer could be presented.

``They refused to meet with us, so we're not giving it to them,'' Kessler said. ``That's no way to negotiate. We'll sit on this until Jan. 7 if we have to.

``If they want to find out what's in it, they're going to have to meet. This is not a game. It's time to bargain in good faith, and the posturing has to stop,'' Kessler said.

Sources close to the union who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the proposal includes an absolute maximum salary for all players. The union previously agreed to limit the salaries of only those players with less than 10 years' experience.

The owners had been asking for an absolute maximum of $12.25 million for players with 10 years experience, while the union's offer was expected to come in somewhere around $15 million.

The union also was ready ask for lower minimum salaries for veterans and to move off its demand for 57 percent of revenues, dropping as low as 55 percent, sources said. The owners have offered between 53 and 54 percent.

``We have already made our final offer, so if theirs doesn't look a lot like ours then it's not going to be accepted,'' NBA chief legal officer Jeffrey Mishkin said.

Vinny Del Negro of the San Antonio Spurs is close to signing with an Italian team in a deal that would allow him to return to the NBA if the lockout ends.

NHL: The New Jersey Nets are trying to buy the New Jersey Devils so the owners can move both teams from the Meadowlands to downtown Newark, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, whose No. 1-ranked Volunteers play Florida State for the national championship Monday night in the Fiesta Bowl, signed a new six-year contract worth $1 million a year.

Arkansas running back coach Danny Nutt's recovery from brain surgery was going well and he may be able to watch the Razorbacks play in the Citrus Bowl on national television.

New Hawaii football coach June Jones has hired a member of his former staff with the San Diego Chargers, Mike Cavanagh, to coach the Rainbows' offensive line.

Hal Mumme, who led Kentucky to its first New Year's Day bowl in nearly a half-century, was rewarded with a new five-year, $4 million contract. The Wildcats will play Penn State in the Outback Bowl today.

ETC.: Germany, England, Brazil, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt and Ghana have officially bid to host the 2006 World Cup soccer finals. . . . The American Basketball League filed for bankruptcy protection, less than two weeks after it announced it was going out of business in its third season.