After rejecting David Stern's latest offer, the NBA owners and players met again on Wednesday and Thursday to see if they could work out their differences on some of the major issues. While Wednesday came and went without a deal in place, most signs indicated progress toward a deal was achieved.
According to Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski, movement was made on three system issues in particular.
David Stern's ultimatum deadline was Wednesday night, but that passed and Stern said the clock was stopped while the two sides continued to negotiate matters today. While Stern hasn't presented the owners with any final draft of a deal, they did come out of meetings with an offer for the union to review.
Billy Hunter said, 'it isn't the greatest proposal,' but he feels obligated to take it to the players. If the union takes the deal by Monday or Tuesday, Stern says there can be a 72-game season which would start on December 15.
Stern suggested that this would be the last proposal before reverting back to the hard cap and 47-percent BRI for the players, the above-referenced ultimatum he had previously set for Wednesday night.
Early speculation is that the players probably will not accept this offer, as the owners barely moved on the bigger system issues, but more negotiations could take place next week before Stern carries out his (second) ultimatum.