NEW YORK (AP) ― Smiling widely but even resorting to a memorable NBA cliche to avoid specifics, David Stern provided little insight into the direction of the league’s labor situation.
That, he hinted, could come Wednesday.
Negotiators for the NBA and its players met for only about two hours Tuesday and plan to resume the talks early Wednesday. Stern said that meeting will determine how soon it’s worth sitting down again.
And if it’s not later this week, more cancellations are likely next week. It’s been expected there would be no talks Thursday because members of both bargaining teams will be observing the Jewish holiday, but they could resume before the weekend if progress is being made.
“They and we have both agreed that so long as there is reason to keep discussing, we will keep discussing, undeterred by the calendar or weekends or things like that,” Stern said. “We will know more after tomorrow’s session.”
Both sides said neither concern nor optimism should be read into the brevity of the meeting. They simply needed time to think about what had been discussed.
“We’ve talked extensively in ideas and concepts, these are things that if we can get into the range of, get into the zone of, then maybe we can put a deal together,” players’ association president Derek Fisher of the Lakers said.
