NEW YORK ? NBA owners and players completed another day of meetings Thursday and plan to have larger groups attend a session Tuesday, with negotiations at what Commissioner David Stern said is "getting to be an important time."
The sides met in small groups for the second consecutive day, again for about 5 1/2 hours.
Though Stern and leaders from the players' association have said they like working in small numbers, Stern said they think it's "a good idea to have larger group meetings at this point."
"At some point, before you can try and make any attempt at any large progress, you have to involve all the respective members that are ultimately going to make the decisions, so we felt it was best to try to do that at this time and Tuesday we'll give (it) a shot," players' association president Derek Fisher of the Lakers said.
Stern said there was nothing yet to show the larger groups, which would include members of the owners' labor relations committee and the union's executive committee. Nor would offer any insight into what it meant that the number of attendees would be increasing after all the meetings since the lockout began July 1 included just the leadership from each side.
"I don't really know that it's positive or negative, I just think it's time to bring the parties into the room who are ultimately responsible for either making a deal or deciding that there shouldn't be a deal," Stern said.
The two sides could again meet for consecutive days next week in New York, then both will update their members on the state of the talks next Thursday ? not long before a decision would have to be made if any changes in the NBA calendar are in order.
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