NBA commissioner David Stern and National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter have been meeting face-to-face to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, sources close to the talks told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

The two sides met last week in Chicago and talks will resume this week in New York, according to sources.

Staffers from both sides were present for the Chicago meetings.

Hunter and Stern negotiated deals in 1999 and 2005. In past negotiations between the two, face-to-face talks have not always led to significant progress, but there has never been big progress without such high-level meetings.

The league delivered the players an updated proposal last week, but the deal was declined.

"Unfortunately, the proposal is very similar to the proposal the league submitted over a year ago," union president Derek Fisher told ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan and Chris Broussard. "This last proposal doesn't look close to what we were expecting."