NBA Lockout: Owners, Players Reportedly ‘Inching Closer To A Deal’

NBA lockout talks resumed on Wednesday, and CBS Sports’ Ken Berger offers the best news we’ve had in months: a source says that owners and players are “inching closer to a deal.”Owners dropped their precondition on the players accepting a 50-50 revenue split before negotiating the league’s proposed “system changes,” setting up Wednesday’s session. But that doesn’t mean the league was necessarily willing to move off of 50-50, especially considering that the owners made the same demand two weeks ago. (They came off it of it then, too.)

This could be a mirage, but that willingness to negotiate again could signal a willingness to move on the major issues. Perhaps the quickly approaching practical deadline to reach a deal before all of November is lost can jolt the sides into compromise. Or perhaps thicker heads can continue to prevail. We should know more by the end of this week, as the two sides seem incapable of meeting for more than three days in a row.