The league's initial response to the NBPA's disclaimer of interest was to knock more games off the potential 2011-12 calendar. According to a number of reports, the NBA has sent word that all games scheduled through December 15 have been cancelled.

That would seem to indicate that the league is still holding out hope that their slate of Christmas Day games - the highest-profile slate of regular-season games on the annual calendar - will still be played as scheduled. But league commissioner David Stern has also said that the league will need 30 days from "deal is reached" to "season begins."

That means they'll need to have a deal in place before Thanksgiving - November 24th - to have any shot of staging those Christmas Day games.