There is good news and bad news for NBA fans. The good news is that the two sides will meet again on Monday on the heels of their seven hour meeting over the weekend. The bad news is that they aren't any closer to a deal to save the 2011-12 basketball season.
The first thought by many was that certainly a lot of progress had to be made after such a long meeting, especially with both the players and owners working with their biggest negotiating teams in quite some time.
"I wouldn't say there was any progress," NBAPA executive director Billy Hunter told reporters on Saturday.
Playing the role of optimist for once -- if you can call it that -- NBA commissioner David Stern did say there was some movement towards a deal.
"We're not near anything, but wherever that is, we're closer than we were before."
Yes, that's the optimistic view.
The league has already indefinitely suspended training camps and canceled the first 43 games of the preseason. If significant progress is not made by the middle of the week, there will be no avoiding wiping out the remainder of the preseason and the beginning of the regular season.
If the owners want to really make a statement, they could flat out cancel the entire season in the face of more stonewalling from the players, though that would be extreme. Either way, we are going to start losing real basketball games if the two sides don't start to make real progress with the salary cap and division of revenues.
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