NEW YORK (AP) -- Peace is not at hand, and a settlement is nowhere near. Even a brush with Henry Kissinger and an appearance by Michael Jordan couldn't move David Stern any closer to shaving his beard.Bulls star Michael Jordan makes a surprise appearance as the NBA labor talks resume in New York.Associated Press
The opposing sides in the NBA lockout had their longest meeting to date Thursday, but made little progress toward ending the most damaging labor dispute in league history."It's more likely we won't have a season than we will have a season," Stern said.
"There may not be a solution, and we accept that," said Stern, who has pledged to wear his beard until the lockout ends. "I now recognize the possibility, or the likelihood, that the season will expire."
Jordan was in the building and Kissinger was in the neighborhood as the owners and players met face-to-face for about 10 1/2 hours on an unseasonably warm December day. But this session -- only the fifth meeting with full negotiating committees present since the start of the 157-day-old lockout -- was more about covering old ground than presenting new initiatives.
The sides discussed their previous proposals and restated their old arguments, making only minor moves toward compromise.
"I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time," union director Billy Hunter said. "What's really going on is an issue of time, and I don't think they're quite ready to make a deal. I think they want to take us up to the 12th hour."
Stern, who again refused to set a drop-dead date or accept a union offer of mediation, admitted that the owners had not yet made their "last, final, no-holds barred offer."
So the sides will spend the next few days much like they have spent the past five months: waiting, wondering and watching as the season wastes away.
The season cannot begin until early-to-mid January, and Stern said it would take a "miracle" to avoid canceling the All-Star game set for Feb. 14 in Philadelphia.
"It's not the so-called intransigent and greedy owners that are blocking the deal. It's no one that's blocking the deal," Stern said. "It's just two sides that cannot agree."
Driving that point home, Stern came to his post-meeting press conference with a multicolored chart illustrating the owners' proposal and said the sides have finally gotten past their mistrust over the legitimacy of the owners' financial woes.
But just minutes later, union president Patrick Ewing stepped to the podium and proclaimed: "We can never agree with their numbers."
Alonzo Mourning said the blame lies with the "greed issue on the other side of the table," and the union's negotiating team shook their heads in disgust when they discussed changes the owners are seeking to free agency timing rules.
Stern angrily dismissed the notion that the owners were holding out until the 12th hour in the hopes the players will cave.
"The notion that we would self-inflict the damage we have, the absurdity of that suggestion tells you why we're going around in circles," he said.
"We were told today, and I accept the players at their words, that the proposals we've made they will not accept. The alternatives, in our view as we meet with the owners, are not about what the game plan is, but what the NBA will look like next year.
"At some point, the season will expire of its own weight," Stern said.