David Falk believes the risk of the NBA and its players to not reach agreement on a new deal would be severe.

“There will be damage to both sides, severe damage to both sides if we don’t have a deal,” Falk said in a recent telephone interview. “You don’t know if the fans are going to come back. And it’s especially severe this year because football made the deal. Football showed that they could get their stuff together and make the deal. If we can’t show that, I think it’s going to be severe repercussions with the fans, particularly because of the economic climate.”

Falk believes that the situation can still be resolved.

“They have to negotiate. They have to horse trade,” Falk said. “If the league wants to reduce the percentage of revenues that the players receive, like they did in football, I understand it, then why do you need a hard cap? You don’t need both. If the owners can only spend so much money then why go through the emotion of saying you need a hard cap? They don’t need a hard cap and they know they don’t need a hard cap. Lets get over the wish list and get on the real list and get the . . .thing done.”

Falk added that the players have to realize that they have more to lose than gain with an extended fight. “The owners are saying we’re losing tons of money and we have to dramatically change the system. The players are saying, ‘I don’t believe you. I don’t really think you’re losing that much money.’ ” Falk said. The owners will say, “I’ll tell you what, you guys are making $2.167 billion. I’ll bet you the whole thing. Play Texas poker, let’s go all in. All in. We’ll bet you the whole thing. If you’re wrong, it’s going to cost you $2.167 billion dollars and if you’re right, you’ll make a couple extra $100,000.”