David Stern discussed the state of the NBA lockout during an interview with ESPN's Bill Simmons on the BS Report.

Stern believes serious progress must be made by Labor Day weekend because the proposal from the owners may "be really ugly from an economic standpoint for the players, because it's going to be really ugly from an economic standpoint for the teams."

The possibility of missing a full season becomes more serious if progress isn't made by Labor Day, according to Stern.

"If Labor Day comes and goes without us ready to huddle in and kiss off our Labor Day weekend to make this deal, then we may be headed to a bad place," Stern said.

Stern highlighted the specific position of the owners.

"We'd like to take out more expenses and then have a 50-50 split after the expenses. We said that, and the big issue is, we have asked the players to take an eight-percent cut. From the $2.2 billion total, our total was $2 million, and hold it from where we try to grow out ourselves. If we do very well, and we grow more than four percent, they'll do better than $2 million under our projections and theirs, and we'll start to grow."

Stern also talked about the questions surrounding the cancelation of a meeting scheduled for Thursday.

"I spoke to Billy [Hunter], and in effect, they said it the same way. They said, 'Our guys don't want to have a meeting unless you're going to make a new proposal.' And we said, 'Too bad,' and we canceled the meeting ... But that's their right, and I understand it. It's not a big deal. They've got a lot of education to do with their players. You know that as well as I do."