Derek Fisher will be meeting this week with executive director Billy Hunter to finalize the Collective Bargaining Agreement counter-proposal that will be delivered to the league office by the end of the month.

"All indications are, [the owners] are not all that anxious to get something done, not based on the (earlier) proposal they extended to us,'' Hunter told FanHouse Tuesday before Game 3 of the NBA Finals. "It's like 'everybody go to your corner and wait.' It's like pulling teeth.''

The current CBA between the NBA and its players union doesn't expire until the end of next season. The two sides have begun preliminary talks that have accentuated how far apart they are.

During his press conference before Game 1 of the Finals, David Stern was asked how important coming to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is to him.

"I would say it's No. 1 on our agenda," said Stern. "I'm not sure we're get it done this summer, but we have until July 1, 2011. It's going to be a very high priority. We've had several meetings. We've provided enormous amounts of information and we're awaiting response from the Players' Association. As soon as that happens we're going to dig in and get to work."

Stern was later asked by Larry Coon to comment on Billy Hunter's use of the word 'baloney' in response to the claim the NBA will take a $400 million loss this season.

"I grew up in Stern's Delicatessen," said Stern. "He has his meatloaf. This is substance. We've given him our certified financial statements. We've provided access to our tax returns, and we're awaiting their review of those, and if there's more needed, they'll get more. And then even eventually we'll get around to talking about it and we'll work our way thought it.

"But the facts on the ground will be what they are, and we're very comfortable because we've given the Players' Association more financial information than has ever been done in the history of sport."

In follow-up, Coon asked Stern what the NBA's response will be if the Players continue to discredit the accounting.

"It's interesting," said Stern. "I'd like him to tell me that. I've only read it in the paper. We provided all of the documents, all of these things. I guess starting, I think in August or September and then we gave our proposal in January and now we're told we'll have something in June. And we hope to sit down because actually at the last meeting they said they had issues with some of our numbers. We said, great, let us know that they are. And we're awaiting that.

"So obviously the track is not a fast track with response to the question earlier about what we're going to do this summer, but clearly we're going to aim to get one done for next summer."

But the league office has unmistakably lofty goals for what it needs the new CBA to look like due to the economic peril many teams currently find themselves in.

Stern admitted that if they are unable to come to terms on a new CBA that corrected some of its flawed economics, he would stop advising prospective owners to purchase existing teams.

The league office is looking for a severe reduction of the 57% of basketball related income currently being given to the players.