Owners, players' union meet again today

With training camps already postponed and the potential for more delays in the coming NBA season, talks will continue Tuesday in Manhattan between the league and the players' union with a sense of urgency to reach a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement.

This next round of negotiations, the first since the league announced Friday the indefinite postponement of training camps and the cancellation of 43 preseason games, is expected to remain a small group, as has been the recent trend. Commissioner David Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver and Peter Holt, the San Antonio Spurs owner and the league's labor relations committee chairman are expected to represent the league and president Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter and general counsel Ron Klempner will be on hand for the union.

The NBA regular season is scheduled to open Nov. 1, which leaves the sides only a couple of weeks to strike a deal in time. With each week that passes, the league must cancel more preseason games. As Stern said Thursday, "the calendar is not our friend."

One notable difference between this lockout and the experience in 1998-99, which saw the league lose half of a season before reaching a new deal, is that star players are far less visible and vocal now. Most of the current stars have stayed out of the process and are instead focusing on playing charity games, such as Sunday night's "Battle of I-95" at the Palestra in Philadelphia, which included the Knicks' Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Chris Paul.

Anthony, who attended a few meetings in June, said the stars aren't detached from the labor situation.

"We communicate almost every day," he said. "When I say every day I mean every day. We talk about this lockout, we talk about different things, different schemes, different situations. We talk about the owners, we talk about ourselves. We talk about reality. At the end of the day that's what it is, reality. Hopefully, like I said, we can get something done soon."

The union had planned to hold a regional meeting with its members Tuesday in Miami, but that meeting, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, has been canceled.

Stern was scheduled to appear at Yankee Stadium this afternoon to join commissioners from other major professional sports -- Roger Goodell (NFL), Gary Bettman (NHL) and Don Garber (MLS) -- in an event called "Sports Teams for Social Change," hosted by Beyond Sport United. It has not known if Stern will make this appearance or whether he will remain at the negotiating table.