NBA players and owners spent a marathon 16 hours meeting with a federal mediator and planned to return early Wednesday to continue the talks.
They didn’t emerge with the deal Commissioner David Stern wanted Tuesday, but things went well enough that owners decided to alter their plans after previously saying they weren’t available Wednesday.
The sides met beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday and went late into the night, finally breaking after 2 a.m. Wednesday. It was more than twice as long as any previous negotiating session since owners locked out players when the old collective bargaining agreement expired June 30.
Both sides left the meeting without commenting at the request of federal mediator George Cohen…
Although the fact that talks didn’t break off is good news, one person with knowledge of the process said not to presume there was any serious progress. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of Cohen’s request.
— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press
NBA owners and players will resume their labor negotiations with a federal mediator on Wednesday following a 16-hour session that generated minimal progress, a league source involved in the talks told Yahoo! Sports.
The league and players union emerged from their longest labor meeting of the 111-day lockout “still not anywhere near a deal,” a league source said. Representatives from both sides refused to comment publicly on the nature of talks, citing a gag order from mediator George Cohen.
Asked if the sides had closed any gaps between them, a source in the meeting told Y! Sports: “On small stuff. Hard to see where this is going.”
— Reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports
