Progress said to be made in NBA talks, but big issues remain

NEW YORK - Representatives for the NBA and its players union holed up inside a New York hotel for the better part of Wednesday and Thursday, and will be back at it Friday morning.

The two sides met for more than 15 hours starting on Wednesday and returned to the bargaining table at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday's meeting ended after only seven hours with both sides feeling tired after Wednesday's marathon session. Both sides indicated it made more sense to break early, get rest, and get back to the bargaining table on Friday for "as long as it takes."

Before going home for the night, union chief Billy Hunter indicated that a deal might be within sight.

"I think we're in striking distance of getting a deal," said Hunter, who was bantering with NBA commissioner David Stern, sitting in on the union's news conference.

The two exchanged jokes, laughs, and smiles.

The two sides have agreed to continue meeting Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Also of note was the absence of the union's economist, Kevin Murphy. The union couldn't proceed on the crucial economic issue, the split of basketball revenue, without Murphy. Murphy is scheduled to rejoin the union for Friday's session.

The word from behind closed doors? Progress is being made, a middle ground could be in sight, but crucial hurdles remain.

The two sides are encouraged by the progress they've made over the "system" issues - luxury tax and contract terms - but they've agreed to "park" the crucial economic issue: the split of basketball-related income.

Most surrounding these latest talks, and even the participants themselves, seemed mildly encouraged by the progress.

"There was some progress made on our system issues," union president Derek Fisher said after Wednesday's meeting. "I think we'll turn to the split when we finish the system issues."

Neither the union nor the NBA was willing to extrapolate specifically on the progress made, saying it would be fruitless to discuss advances when any given issue could trigger a backslide.

"There's no deal on anything unless there's a deal on everything," Stern said after Wednesday's marathon session.

Even with both sides cautioning against optimism, discussion turned to whether the NBA could still salvage an 82-game season.

The NBA officially canceled the first two weeks of the regular season on Oct. 10, but speculation remains that those missed games could be inserted into the back end of the slate by scheduling additional back-to-back contests.