Critical Two-Day Stretch Today And Tomorrow For NBA Labor Talks

NBA and NBPA reps are slated to meet again today "in a small group with only the top negotiators" and tomorrow "with the full bargaining committees" (CBSSPORTS.com, 10/1). There were seven-plus hours of CBA talks over the weekend, after which NBPA outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler said the sides are "still very far apart." NBA Commissioner David Stern said, "We're not near anything. But wherever that is, we're closer than we were before" (L.A. TIMES, 10/2). Cancellation of the "rest of the preseason and a chunk of the regular season could come tomorrow night" (N.Y. POST, 10/3).

CBSSPORTS.com's Ken Berger writes, "Welcome to the most important 48 hours of David Stern's reign as commissioner." Today and tomorrow's sessions are "the fourth quarter" for Stern, NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter "and their sport" (CBSSPORTS.com, 10/3).

Stern admitted that he and Heat G Dwyane Wade "went at it" during Friday's meeting. Stern joked, "I wrestled him to the ground." Stern: "There was a heated exchange and I feel passionately about the system we have and what it should continue to deliver for players and owners and he feels passionately, too" (N.Y. POST, 10/2).