During a Thursday interview on WFAN, David Stern indicated that Tuesday's bargaining session in front of a federal mediator will be momentous.  If there is no agreement by then, Stern predicted a long lockout that will wipe out games at least through Christmas.

"It’s time to make the deal. If we don’t make it Tuesday, my gut … is that we won’t be playing on Christmas Day," Stern said.

However, Stern's tone was generally positive and his outlook about reaching an ultimate resolution to end the lockout seemed optimistic.

Stern repeated his earlier assertions that the share of basketball-related income is no longer a major obstacle to completing the new CBA.  The commissioner stated that deal points concerning league competitiveness, giving each team a realistic chance to win a championship, are the remaining items to be hammered out.

Stern indicated that it was the players union that invited the league to formulate a punitive luxury tax in place of a hard cap or a flexible soft cap.

The commissioner may be leaving the door open to playing a full 82-game schedule, saying that two weeks of the regular season will certainly be lost for good if a deal is not reached soon. On Monday Stern cancelled two weeks of games and was dismissive of the notion that those missed games could be made up.  But Billy Hunter believes this would be possible through a compressed schedule and an extension of the regular season.  Today Stern may have revealed some hope of that contingency plan should a new CBA be agreed upon quickly.

Stern was emphatic in saying that the league has no furtive wish for a long lockout or the cancellation of any games as a strategy intended to bust the players union.