The players and owners completed yet another marathon labor negotiation – 11.5 hours – on Thursday without a deal. However; it seems as if an ultimatum has been handed out by commissioner, David Stern. The players will have until early next week to accept the revised deal before the owners reportedly drop their offer to 47 percent of revenue for players and a hard salary cap.
If the players accept the revised offer next week the lockout will end and a shortened 72-game season will begin on December 15.
Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk discusses the "revisions" of the owners current offer:
It calls for a 50/50 split of basketball related income. Technically it is the 49 percent to 51 percent band in place in the last owners offer. But the reality of how that band is structured is that the split is 50/50 with little variation.
Billy Hunter also revealed that there are still a handful of "B issues" that must be resolved.