Billy Hunter waited one month to respond to David Stern's claim that the NBA will lose $400 million this season.

"Based upon our review and what we've done thus far, we dispute the $400 million figure," Hunter told CBSSports.com Friday. "And we plan to present our rebuttal to David and the owners at an appropriate time. Our contention is that the number's overstated."

There appears to be little hope for bargaining to resume until after the July 1, when owners and players will embark on what is expected to be the biggest free-agent signing period in NBA history without a clue as to how the financial landscape will look going forward.

"I would hope to submit a proposal to the owners any time between May 1 and July 1, with the idea that we would obviously be available to spend a lot of time negotiating during the summer, when the players are available," Hunter said Friday.

The players see a mixture of accounting tricks, team mismanagement and the nearly two-year recession as the real culprits in a revenue decline they say is not nearly as large as Stern stated in Dallas.

"The basis of our objection is just when it comes to general accounting principles," Hunter said. "We think that there's been an overstatement, that some of the things that they discount should not be discounted because they relate to non-operating expenses and related parties."

Hunter declined to get into specifics, saying he has employed a leading economist from the University of Chicago, Kevin Murphy, to analyze the financial statements turned over by the league. Asked if he had a more realistic figure for the league's losses this season, Hunter said, "No, I don't. But we will. We contend it's much less than the $400 million."