MAYBE NBA SEASON CAN BE SAVED; TALKS SPARK HOPE.

Byline: Associated Press 

The opposing sides in the NBA lockout met for about nine hours Monday and finally started talking in detail about a compromise, making it the most productive negotiating session they've had to date.

``There's hope,'' said Dikembe Mutombo of the Atlanta Hawks.

The league backed off somewhat on its demand for a hard salary cap, meaning the sides have to be closer, at least in principle, to coming to an agreement on the main economic issues.

``We need a system that eventually gets to where there's a set percentage for the players and a set percentage for the owners,'' deputy commissioner Russ Granik said. ``I don't think it has to be a hard cap, and in fact some of the things we're talking about now are not hard caps.''

About 20 people from the union and 10 from the league worked through the afternoon and into the night at a luxury Manhattan hotel. The site was kept a secret to avoid the circus atmosphere that has surrounded past negotiating sessions.

``The best thing is we have some sort of an agreement on basic principles,'' said Orlando center Danny Schayes, a member of the union's executive committee.

``Right now we're talking about a hybrid system. The first couple of years it would work one way, for another couple of years it would work another way if the first way didn't work. At least we're finding some common ground.''

Most participants left after about 7-1/2 hours, but a few members from each side, including commissioner David Stern and union director Billy Hunter, continued until 11:30 p.m. EST.

Despite the stealthiness and the reluctance of most of the principals to discuss details, it was eminently clear that the sides were moving away from confrontation and toward compromise.

The league was asking to operate under a luxury-tax system for the next three seasons, with a fallback system of a harder salary cap for the next three years. The union was asking for a tax system lasting two years, with the fallback system lasting another two years, Schayes said.

``Instead of absolute cost certainty, there would be mechanisms that give the owners a very good shot at costs within a certain range. So it's a good compromise in that area,'' Schayes said.

Still, the sides had not made any movement on whose contracts would be taxable and how high the tax would be. In earlier bargaining sessions, the union proposed a 50 percent tax on the amount of any annual salary exceeding $18 million, and the owners proposed a tax of anywhere from 50 to 200 percent on any contract signed under the Larry Bird exception for more than $2.6 million annually.

``The good news is at least we're talking about the same thing,'' Schayes said. ``We're not close on the specifics, so it depends what you call progress.'

The sides have agreed to meet again today and Wednesday. Today's session will focus on non-economic issues, and Wednesday's meeting will cover many of the topics discussed Monday.

Stern, Granik, Hunter and union president Patrick Ewing met for about three hours Saturday to conclude a contentious week that included arbitrator John Feerick's decision on owners' liability for guaranteed contracts and the union's militant meeting in Las Vegas.

``The tone has changed coming out of Vegas,'' said Jim McIlvaine of Seattle, another member of the union's executive committee. ``Every day we don't reach a deal is another bad day, and all we've agreed upon is that we'll continue to meet.''

Monday's talks - the seventh joint session - came in advance of a two-day meeting of the league's Board of Governors. It was Stern's best chance to make a bold move toward settling a dispute that has lasted nearly four months and has forced the league to cancel games for the first time in its history.