NBA players and owners will resume talks on Wednesday, two people with knowledge of the plans said Tuesday. This comes a week after the sides vowed to meet more frequently in hopes of reaching a new collective bargaining agreement.
The session will be just the third between top negotiators since the lockout started July 1. But with the opening of training camps less than a month away, both sides said they recognized the urgency to pick up the pace.
The meeting — expected to be a small group — will be in New York. The site hasn't been disclosed.
No new proposals were exchanged last week during a meeting that lasted about six hours. Neither side shared many details, saying they preferred to keep the nature of the talks private.
Commissioner David Stern said afterward there was still "clearly enough time" to make a deal that would allow the regular season to open as scheduled on Nov. 1. However, a gap remains between the financial changes owners are seeking and what players have been willing to accept.
"I could see it going either way," Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns told the Canadian Press on Tuesday. "It looks like right now we probably won't start on time.
Before last week, the only other meeting between top officials was on Aug. 1, after which Stern criticized the players for an unwillingness to compromise. The league filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board and a lawsuit against the players the next day, adding to the complaint the union had already filed with the NLRB.
But both sides have stressed that a deal can only be reached at the bargaining table, not the court system.
Pau Gasol faces Dirk Nowitzki again, this time in their national team colors at the start of the second round of the European Championship at Vilnius, Lithuania.
The second round opens in the Lithuanian capital on Wednesday with the matchup of NBA stars when Germany plays Spain. Turkey then takes on France and Lithuania goes against Serbia.
Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks swept Gasol's Lakers in the NBA's Western Conference semifinals. This time, Gasol is favored to come out ahead.
The draw was unkind to some of the favored teams at the European Championship, with all of them in the same pool as they try to advance.
Gasol's defending champion Spain, silver medalist Serbia, world championship runner-up Turkey, host Lithuania and Germany with Nowitzki and France with Tony Parker are all in the same second-stage group. Four teams will advance to the quarterfinals.
The other group has Macedonia and Russia, which have already won two matches apiece against their group rivals, Georgia, Greece, Finland and Slovenia.
The Detroit Pistons picked Dennis Mannion as their new president of business operations. Joe Dumars will remain the president of basketball operations.
Mannion was fired as president of Los Angeles Dodgers by team owner Frank McCourt nearly a year ago. He replaces Alan Ostfield, who was fired in June by the Pistons' new owner, Tom Gores.
Fan killed at Wembley in Euro qualifying match
Spain and Italy sealed their places at Euro 2012 with two qualifying games to spare on Tuesday while England moved closer to next year's finals after beating Wales in a game at Wembley overshadowed by the death of a Wales fan.
David Villa and Alvaro Negredo scored twice as defending champion Spain thrashed Liechtenstein 6-0 to secure top spot in Group I, and substitute Giampaolo Pazzini's 85th-minute strike earned the Italians a narrow win in Florence that clinched them first place in Group C.
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