USA - Latest talks aimed at ending lockout fail

NEW YORK (NBA) - The glimmer of hope late Tuesday night that progress might have been made to end the NBA lockout has disappeared.

The latest negotiations between the team owners and players was halted on Thursday evening and there is no date for talks to resume.

The entire pre-season and the first two weeks of the regular season have already been cancelled, and now more games are in danger of being wiped off the calendar.

The two sides have yet to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement, with the main issues being basketball related income (BRI) and the structure of a salary cap.

While neither side commented after Tuesday's 16-hour marathon session of talks on the request of a federal mediator George Cohen, players and owners did speak on Thursday night.

"We've always felt there was still a place where they would just not go and they would lock us out as long as it would take in order to get us beyond that place," said Los Angeles Lakers veteran Derek Fisher, the union president.

"There was just a line drawn, and regardless of what's going on, how many times we meet, 'we're not going past that.'"

NBA commissioner David Stern missed Thursday's talks after coming down with the flu but the league's deputy commissioner Adam Silver was present and he said: "We understand the ramifications of where we are. We're saddened on behalf of the game."

Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat voiced his frustration on Twitter.

He tweeted: "You know it's sad when people don't even try and hide their greed..#NBALockout."

The labor dispute has not only led to the cancellation of games, but there is now a fear that the entire season could be lost.

Many players have signed to play for clubs overseas during the lockout.

FIBA