Another marathon bargaining session on Wednesday between the NBA and NBPA ended very early on Thursday morning, but this time, the two sides held a very different tone than last week.
In other words, there appears to be a real reason for optimism.
One week ago today, things leaked really bleak.
The owners were adhering to a 50-50 split of Basketball Related Income (BRI) before displaying a willingness to tackle any of the "system issues," and the players were not willing to accept the aforementioned divide of revenue without knowing the system that those revenues would be generated from.
It appeared as if the two parties were at a true stalemate, and the undertones from each side following the meeting were harsh.
NBPA President Derek Fisher accused ownership of lying, Executive Director Billy Hunter was the most vocal we have seen him throughout this process and there appeared to be little hope of ironing out an agreement in the foreseeable future.
Now, both sides have admitted that a full compliment of games in the form of an 82-game schedule remains a distinct possibility.
Fisher and Hunter sounded dramatically different following Wednesday's meeting, and even admitted that progress was actually made, although they wouldn't get into the specifics of exactly what was achieved (via Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press).
"We were able to work through a number of different issues today regarding our system," union president Derek Fisher said. "We can't say that major progress was made in any way, but some progress was made on system issues. Obviously enough for us to come back."
Although the parties did not discuss BRI on Wednesday, that is an issue to be discussed once the system is taken care of, as Commissioner David Stern feels that has led to increased momentum within the room.
"I think we'll turn to the split when we finish with the system," Stern said. "Right now, it has been profitable to turn to the system."
The last line from Fisher is critical, as he paints a very clear picture that enough measurable progress was actually made for the two sides to meet immediately again on Thursday despite another draining 15-hour session.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports has been on scene since these discussions ramped up in New York, and he relayed some interesting details from Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver to take away for fans hoping to see basketball before long.
“There's no question that today was a better day than last Thursday,” Silver said. “I think it's too early, not just in the morning, but still in the negotiations to express confidence that we're at a deal. There's no question, though, that we did make progress on some significant issues.”
Echoing sentiments from both Mahoney and Berger, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports really has fans feeling cautiously optimistic that a deal could very well be on the horizon.
There was a significant effort among the NBA’s owners to push hard to get a deal done with the players over the weekend, sources told Yahoo! Sports. NBA commissioner David Stern wasn’t happy with the implosion of talks that occurred with him home ill last Thursday, and sources said he was more determined than ever to rally his owners to find some compromises to make a deal with the union.
So just how long will it take once an agreement is reached until basketball can be played and fans can return to the game that they love?
About three weeks will be needed to get the deal finalized in writing, allow teams to sign free agents and hold abbreviated training camps, possibly pushing the start of the regular season into the last week of November or the first week of December.
The carrot has been dangling in front of the horse before, only to have it yanked away repetitively when another stumbling block has entered to stall discussions.
However, with all of that in mind, it's looking like we could very well have basketball long before some were anticipating seeing the action.
It looks like we might just get our basketball underneath the tree before Christmas Day.
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