Earlier today Chris Mortenson reported that the lockout has an "end date" for what seems like the fifth time this offseason. Having been burnt by these faux deadlines once too many times, we expressed some serious skepticism over the report this morning. As it turns out, it might have been smart to doubt the happy news...
Pete Prisco quoted an unnamed player this afternoon who said that these glowing reports about how close a deal is are coming 100% from the owners.
"That's not true," the player said. "All that is hype coming from the owners side to try and put pressure on us to do a deal. They want to make us look bad. It's simply not true. There is a lot of work to be done. They are not close."
"Consider where that information is coming from, it's the owners," the player said. "Their reason is to try and create all this false hope to put more pressure on us."
As for the reports about July 21st as the latest magic deadline. The player says he'd be "shocked" if a deal were done by then.