David Stern was just on SportsCenter now with a brief interview on the reported Wednesday NBA lockout deadline that the owners set forth to the NBA Players Association for their current offer. Here's a quick transcript of quotes (not 100% exact, just did it by hand)
On the deadline: "We think there's a great offer on table, and we told the players, 'It's getting late.' The only rational thing is to make that deal b/c given what is going on in our business and our industry, it will get worse from there. We told the players ... an offer of 47% will become operative w/ hard cap in effect [if they don't accept."
On decertification: "I don't think it would affect it particularly much. The reality is that decertification route was tried by the NFL players and the court of appeals for 8th Circuit soundly rejected the attempt. I don't know what they're thinking."
On the owners being unified: "They're unified in their willingness to make this deal through Wednesday, then they'll be unified in willingness to negotiate the 47 percent proposal that goes on table at close of business Wednesday." In other words, they're unified because I said so.
On the cancellation of more games: "I don't want to say when we'll call off the season, because clearly we're not there yet and I don't want to make an idle threat."
Greenberg said that they reached out to Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher to go on the show as well, but both declined. That's pretty dumb if you ask me.
Meanwhile, one current player has very vocally said the players should just take the deal. Here's what Kevin Martin told Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated.
"If you know for sure [the owners] are not moving, then you take the best deal possible," Martin wrote in a text message to SI.com. "We are risking losing 20 to 25 percent of missed games that we'll never get back, all over 2 percent [of basketball-related income] over an eight- to 10-year period [of the eventual collective bargaining agreement]. And let's be honest: 60 to 70 percent of players won't even be in the league when the next CBA comes around."
Ouch. Finally, per Adrian Wojnarowski, the two sides are working on a meeting to make a deal. One way or another, this is it.