This weekend is shaping up to be pivotal in the NBA lockout. Talks between the two sides resume today, and the NBA Players’ Association has asked many of their stars to convene for a meeting in New York. Commissioner David Stern reportedly is pushing hard on both owners and union leadership to get a deal done by this weekend.

Stern’s “going to make a real hard push to get a deal this weekend,” one team president told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday. “If the union makes a slight move, David will move.
“But the players have to blink first.”
When Stern decides to give Hunter an escape valve, this is over. When Stern can convince his owners to back off, this is over. Stern needs to give Hunter something to take back to the union, and say, “We won.” Maybe it’s the illusion of a soft salary cap, the preservation of the midlevel exception, a 50-50 revenue percentage split. Whatever. This isn’t about a fair deal, it’s about a deal the union can rationalize to the players for ratification.

These discussions will take place amidst an Italian team’s hard push to sign Kobe Bryant to play there during the lockout. In fact, The Associated Press reports that Virtus Bologna has an agreement in place with the Lakers star.

“We have reached an economic deal,” Virtus president Claudio Sabatini told a local radio station. “There’s still some things to arrange but at this point I’m very optimistic. I would say it’s 95 percent done.”
A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday that the sides have settled on a $3 million contract for the opening 40 days of the Italian league season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has still not been signed.

Many NBA stars have taken to exploring their options to play internationally, fueling talks that the players are taking a hard line and are prepared to give up regular-season NBA games in order to get to a favorable agreement with ownership.