NEW YORK (AP) - Two months ago, NBA commissioner David Stern and union director Billy Hunter exuded optimism over the prospect of having a new labor agreement completed by now.

But another meeting Tuesday brought the sides no closer, and a new contract remained elusive despite at least a dozen meetings between league and union negotiators.

When Stern meets with NBA owners later this week to discuss the talks, the best he'll be able to provide them with is an update.

"It certainly has been our goal to get it done as soon as possible. Without putting a date on it, every day we don't have it, in our view, is not a good thing," Stern said in his annual pre-playoff conference call with reporters.

Union negotiators traveled uptown to the league offices Tuesday morning and met for about two hours with NBA officials. No details of the meeting were disclosed.

The league's Board of Governors will meet at a Manhattan hotel later this week, and Stern will deliver a briefing on the state of negotiations.

Both sides have been publicly silent about the give-and-take being conducted behind closed doors, although people involved in the negotiations have indicated that significant differences remain to be bridged on issues including a possible increase in the minimum age, salary cap and luxury tax thresholds, maximum length of contracts and the size of year-to-year increases that will be permitted in future long-term player contracts.

An increase in the age limit has been one of the most publicly debated issues. Under current rules, a U.S. player's high school class must have graduated in order for him to become eligible for the draft, while international players must turn 18 before the draft in order to be eligible.

"If the age limit were to be raised, the people who were below ... would have an opportunity to play internationally, or in college, or in the minor leagues. We don't see that as a controversy," Stern said. "It means that an 18-year-old would be treated the same way as a 17-year-old.

"If they (the union) and we agree to it, then it can be implemented (for) the draft in 2006," Stern said.

Union director Billy Hunter and union president Michael Curry did not return calls seeking comment.

The current collective bargaining agreement expires June 30 at 11:59 p.m., and the sides hope to avoid a repeat of the seven-month lockout that transpired the last time they had to work out a new labor agreement seven years ago.

During the All-Star break in Denver in mid-February, union president Michael Curry said he believed a new agreement could be reached before the end of the regular season, and Stern and Hunter echoed that optimism - which turned out to be misplaced - at a joint news conference a day later.

Teams are completing their 82-game schedules Wednesday night and beginning the playoffs Saturday, and Stern and Hunter will not discuss when they might hold future negotiating sessions until after Stern meets with the owners Thursday and Friday.

Exactly, they'll work it out. Because both sides don't want to lose revenue from a LOST SEASON.

that's how I felt about NHL '05

that's how I felt about NHL '05

it will be fixed, dont sweat it, both sides remember last time, both sides see whats happening with hockey. they wont repeat

I'm hoping that the NBA will learn something from the NHL lockout.

The 1998 lockout put a bad taste in my mouth and I didn't watch Baskeball for a long time. One of the reasons why I became a fan this year was because of the NHL strike. If for some God awful reason the NBA can't reach an agreement, I just might be done with sports for a while. This girl can't survive on a 17 week NFL schedule.

All I can say is that from watching Cribs I get the impression that the majority of NBA players don't have much money saved up where that can sit out a season.

NEW YORK - Labor talks between the NBA and the players’ union broke off Wednesday, increasing the chance of a lockout starting in the offseason.

In a statement, the NBA accused the union of backtracking on several items that the sides had agreed upon. The collective bargaining agreement expires June 30.

“Since we are at a loss as to how we can possibly reach a new deal that is in any way consistent with the principal terms that we have been discussing for many months, there are no further meetings scheduled at this time,” deputy commissioner Russ Granik said.

If no new agreement is reached, a lockout could begin as early as July 1 — three days after the draft.

The sides had been publicly optimistic over the prospects for reaching a new deal until last Friday, when commissioner David Stern downgraded his outlook to “hopeful.” That came just hours after two union attorneys gave a verbal outline of the union’s new offer and, according to the league, changed its position on several key issues.

“They’ve taken major steps backward on all the key elements,” Granik said in a telephone interview. “We still have more than six weeks until July 1, so I don’t want to predict what will or won’t happen, but based on way things have gone here it’s hard to see where an agreement will be reached any time soon.”

A lockout beginning July 1 would force the cancelation of summer leagues and offseason conditioning programs at team facilities. Training camps are scheduled to open in early October.

The league and union went through an acrimonious seven-month lockout in 1998 and 1999 before agreeing to the current seven-year agreement.

With very few exceptions, the same attorneys that negotiated the old agreement are working on the new one.

In its statement, the league indicated a belief that player agents had pressured union director Billy Hunter to back off some of the concessions he had agreed to in previous negotiating sessions since mid-February.

“At the conclusion of a bargaining session on Sunday, April 17, we thought we were very close to a deal, with only a few items remaining to be compromised,” Granik said. “On April 19, a day after the players association met with a group of player agents, we were informed that the players association could no longer agree to a previously committed five-year rule on length of contracts.

“Then, last week, after promising a written proposal to form the basis of a new agreement, the union instead advised us orally that it needed to backtrack on several other essential terms that had already been resolved.”