Hunter hopes judge restarts NBA talks

Talks between the NBA and its locked-out players could resume as early as next week, according to Billy Hunter. Hunter, the executive director of the NBA Players Association, is now part of star lawyer David Boies' legal team representing the players in antitrust litigation against the NBA. Hunter expressed optimism Tuesday that the Minnesota district court judge assigned to the case, Patrick Schiltz, will soon assign magistrate Arthur Boylan to bring the sides together for a settlement conference.

Boylan presided over settlement talks between the NFL and the NFL players last summer. Hunter, who was at the NBPA's office in Harlem along with former Knicks guard Roger Mason Jr. and Golden State Warriors rookie and former Hofstra star Charles Jenkins for the players' annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway, said he maintains hope that rather than endure months of litigation, settlement talks can begin so there can be an NBA season and even games by Christmas Day.

"I assume it's their hope," Hunter said of the NBA owners. "I know it's our hope, it's always been our hope from the beginning."

But the reality is that the coveted Christmas Day schedule may already be lost. Commissioner David Stern consistently has said the league will need 30 days after reaching a deal to start a season, which makes this holiday weekend the deadline to save Christmas. To make matters worse, it took Boylan two months to get the NFL deal done. That's not a timeline that promotes optimism that there could be a season at all.

Hunter did not want to believe rumors that most owners would rather not have a season at all than experience another shortened season as in 1998-99, when the league played a 50-game schedule.

"I don't think that's true," he said. "I think that the owners want to get as many games as they can get. It doesn't make sense, if they only get a 50-game season, under their agreements with the [television] networks, it may cost them something."

Hunter admitted he believed the sides were "within reach" of a deal just before collective-bargaining talks broke off two weeks ago.Had they reached an accord, a 72-game season would have started Dec. 5.