David Stern shared the same sentiment as the players following Wednesday's meeting that there is enough time to save the start of the 2011-12 NBA season.

But Stern refused to characterize content/tone of negotiations or his level of optimism: "We agreed with the players not to say anything."

The two sides will meet again on Thursday.

"We agreed that we're going to sit here for as many days as we can to see if we're going to be able to make progress.

"We know we have a real problem to solve and there's nothing personal about this."