Just this week union officials and the NBA have met for 16 hours on Tuesday and another nine on Wednesday. The two sides are scheduled to meet yet again on Thursday with federal mediator George Cohen once again presiding over the meetings.
Cohen has asked both sides not to speak to the media but several reports have leaked out from the meeting. After Tuesday's session I cited two sources that claimed there was little movement in the 16 hour mega session but that framework was being laid. After posting that I read many conflicting reports on the meeting and the lockout as a whole.
Here is what we do know to this point. David Stern has not followed through on his threat to cancel games all the way to Christmas. Was that just an idle threat to begin with? We can't be sure and without either side talking to the media we just simply don't know. Reports from Tuesday suggest that the two sides had inched closer to a 50-50 split on revenues which is something that will likely have to happen before a deal can get finished.
The important thing is we can speculate all we want about how wide the gap remains between the two sides but once the big domino falls, everything else can fall into place quickly. How quickly? Well that is still yet to be determined.