The Lockout Isn't Ending Anytime Soon

It's been clear since last week that today would be a turning point in the NBA's labor dispute. With both owners and the players' union bringing their full negotiating committees to New York, and with plans to brief their constituents this Thursday about the terms of any possible compromise, there was legitimate, if cautious, hope that a deal could be struck to start the season on time.

Yeah, so... you can probably just forget about that now.

Today's meetings ran for five-and-a-half hours and broke up maybe an hour ago. Reporters in New York are starting, via Twitter, to pass along quotes from people who were in the room, and hoo boy... things did not go well. After the jump are the basic takeaways.

I'm summarizing here observations and quotes passed along by Derek Fisher, Billy Hunter, Roger Mason (a players' union VP), Ken Berg of CBS Sports, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo, Zach Lowe of SI, David Aldridge, and Sam Amico of Fox Sports:

• The players' union is willing to move off its initial proposals, but the owners aren't. The league won't budge on either the economics or "the system." The latter is code for a hard cap.
• Fish: "We're not marching towards a deal at this time or at any time we can predict."
• Hunter: "We've advised [players] they may have to sit out half the season before we get a deal."
• Mason: "We're nowhere near a deal."
• Woj: "No ownership budging, no new meetings scheduled. . . . NBA's still coming for everything."
• Amico: "50 games would be a miracle." Quoting a source: "It's up to the players now. Owners won't change offer and that's clear. It's ‘Let us know when you're ready to accept.'"

:-(