Earlier this afternoon, there was hope for the NBA and its fans. After all, owners and players -- coaxed by a mediator -- entered its third straight day of aggressive negotiating, triggering rumors that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Tonight, disappointment took over, as the mediated talks between the owners and players broke down with both sides still butting heads and no set plans to reassemble and hash things out.
Consider this from NBA scoop man, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo!:
@WojYahooNBA
Adrian Wojnarowski Talks on a 50-50 BRI split broke down, and labor talks have ended, source tells Y! No new meetings scheduled. Huge setback in this lockout.
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Shortly after the talks ended, rumors swirled that the owners, led by Spurs' owner Peter Holt, made a take-it or leave-it offer of 50-50 before getting into the other specifics and the players would only move from 53-percent down to 52-percent. I'm sure these were scintillating discussions.
It's likely the next big news we hear about the now 112-day-old NBA lockout is that more games will be canceled, as neither side is as dedicated as they say, you know, since they walked out of Day 3 without any set plans to meet again.