After a union meeting to discuss the ongoing labor negotiations with NBA owners, the players vowed to be unified as July 1 and the end of the current collective bargaining agreement nears.

“We’d love to avoid a lockout,” NBPA president Derek Fisher said, “but we’re unified in the sense of not being afraid if that’s what we’re faced with.”

“We’re as unified as we’ve ever been,” Fisher said. “We’ve been instructed not to accept a deal that is not fair to our players.”

“A lockout is something that we are trying to avoid by making multiple offers that treat our players fairly,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “We are dismayed by the union’s unfortunate rhetoric.”