NBA Lockout Update

The movement, sources said, has grown to include more than the original seven agents (Mark Bartelstein, Bill Duffy, Dan Fegan, Leon Rose, Jeff Schwartz, Arn Tellem and Henry Thomas) who have been advocating decertification for months.

The two-step decertification process requires 30 percent of the league’s workforce — an estimated 130 players — to sign the petition calling for a vote. That petition is then forwarded to the NLRB, which would take up to 45 days to ratify the petition and arrange the vote, during which the union and league could continue to negotiate.

Decertification backers believe that the fear of the unknown, with the labor fight potentially moving into courtrooms, would finally move NBA owners off the extreme hard-line negotiating stance they’ve maintained and lead to a more palatable offer during that 45-day window.

Stern, though, insists that the league has no interest in further talks if Thursday’s proposal is rejected.

He repeated last week’s vow that if rebuffed by the NBPA the owners will “reset” to their far more rigid proposal from earlier in the summer, when they called for a 53/47 revenue split in their favor, along with a restrictive flex salary cap and rollbacks on existing salaries.

“There comes a time when you have to be through negotiating,” Stern said, “and we are.

“I am optimistic owners will approve (the deal) if the players approve it and I await their response. We’ve done our best.”

Only a simple majority of teams is needed to approve any labor contract on the league side, but one league source told ESPN.com late Thursday that he expects “more than 20 teams” to sign off on the deal.

That’s despite the ongoing battles within the ownership ranks between small-market franchises seeking harsh tax penalties and other restrictions on big spenders to limit player movement, all part of the league’s claim that it has to improve its competitive balance after seeing just nine franchises win championships in the past 31 seasons.

“It’s been a long haul, man,” Hunter said, explaining his weary look at a news conference Thursday night following the second marathon bargaining session in two days, this one spanning some 11 hours. “We’re coming near the end of it. We’re trying to get this thing done.”