Stern Says NBA Players Have Until Wednesday to Consider New Offer

NBA Commissioner David Stern has given the NBA players until Wednesday to consider his latest offer to end the lockout otherwise the situation will get worse.

“Right now, we’ve been given the ultimatum, and our answer is that’s not acceptable to us,” union president Derek Fisher said.

But the next proposal promises to be worse, surely moving players and owners even further apart and threatening to destroy the 2011-12 season.

Early Sunday morning, the league said it offered players up to 51 percent of basketball-related income, a figure the union insists is fiction. Regardless, it will drop to 47 percent Wednesday if players don’t accept the current offer by the league-imposed deadline.

No agreement by the deadline likely will trigger more calls to disband the union and take on the league in court, a battle that would take months.

Players don’t seem too perturbed by Stern’s latest warning.

“These are professional basketball players, the finest athletes in the world. How do you think they feel about threats? How do you think they feel about efforts at intimidation?” attorney Jeffrey Kessler said.

Fisher and Kessler said the league’s time-sensitive deal — Stern refused to call it an ultimatum — came near the conclusion of Saturday’s talks.

The sides had hoped they could complete a deal this weekend with the help of federal mediator George Cohen’s. He released a statement Sunday commending the parties for “their willingness to examine solutions to their current dispute” and offering to assist in the future. Although the revenue gap has narrowed, the sides are at a standstill on the system issues players insist are just as important.