NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- NBA Commissioner David Stern said Thursday he doesn't believe players are ready to "make a deal" and again raised the specter of a lost season.
"Each side is going to meet with the mediator on Monday and if there is a breakthrough it is going to come on Tuesday," Stern said in an interview with NBA TV. "If not, I think that the season is really going to potentially escape from us."
The first two weeks of the season -- which was to have started Nov. 1 -- were canceled after owners and players could make no progress in their most recent negotiating session last Monday.
The NBA has lost games for the first time since the 1998-99 season, when a work stoppage reduced the scheduled from 82 games to 50.
"How many times does it pay to keep meeting and have the same things thrown back at you?" Stern said Thursday. "We're ready to sit down and make a deal. I don't believe that the union is. Hopefully by Tuesday, aided by the mediator, they'll be ready to make a deal and certainly I'll bring my owners ready to make a deal."
The owners locked out the players July 1, 19 days after the Dallas Mavericks won the 2011 NBA crown.
