The New York Times obtained a copy of the letter from David Stern to his counterpart, Billy Hunter, detailing the league's ultimatum to the players: Accept our current offer by Wednesday or face much less friendly terms.

“Rather than simply proceeding, as we could have, to offer a less favorable proposal at this time, the N.B.A. is providing an additional period of time for the players association to consider our 50/50 proposal,” Stern wrote. 

The “reset” proposal that the league would revert to after Wednesday includes a flex-cap system with a salary cap set at $5 million above the average team salary and rollbacks on existing contracts “in proportion to system changes in order to ensure sufficient market for free agents.”

Stern ends the letter, “Billy, I sincerely hope that we can reach an agreement over the next few days.”