David Stern: Two weeks of games at risk - ESPN.com
The NBA has canceled the remainder of the preseason and will wipe out the first two weeks of the regular season if there is no labor agreement by Monday. ... Four hours of talks between the NBA's owners and players failed to close the gap between the two sides, union president Derek Fisher said Tuesday.
... Stern said the league is about to take a $200 million hit from missing the preseason, adding "There's an extraordinary hit coming to the owners and the players." ...... Boston Celtics stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett [were] among other players joining the union's executive committee.
At this point, I have lost all optimism of their being a season, let alone a full season.
Update #1: "Kevin Garnett was extremely emotional in players pre-meeting, sources say. He was rallying peers to hold firm on BRI split."@WojYahooNBA
Update #2: Start of season jeopardized as labor talks break off - NBA.com
Stern said the owners were willing to consider a 50-50 split, but that the players' side would not consider it. "I was very surprised by that," Stern said.
Stern also said that, during discussions, owners had come off their long-held insistence on a hard cap, and revealed that last week owners backed off their desire for a rollback of existing salaries. He also said the owners had offered the players a chance to opt out of a new 10-year agreement after seven years.