David Stern might throw the players a frickin’ bone here, at the 11th hour of negotiations. According to Adrian Wojnarowski’s sources, the NBA commissioner wants to meet with the players association Tuesday and could possibly soften the NBA’s stance on a few key system issues. The problem — besides that all previous attempts for the NBA to soften its stance amounted to squat — is that Hunter might not even accept the meeting.

As David Stern tries to hold off his most rabid hardline owners, the NBA’s commissioner has expressed a willingness to meet with the Players Association with the possibility of relenting on some system issues that are important to the union in reaching an agreement, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Nevertheless, union executive director Billy Hunter was still deciding late Monday whether he wanted to take the meeting, two sources involved in the talks told Yahoo! Sports. The reason for Hunter’s hesitation was unclear.

As one ownership source told Yahoo! Sports on Monday night, “If there were a couple of tweaks needed around the edges – not fundamental deal points – I believe there could be a deal if everything else is agreed upon. But there needs to be a meeting with David and Billy for anything to happen.”

As usual, the NBA owners continue to be out of their mother-loving minds. A number of owners are reportedly unsatisfied by a 50-50 split, which would amount to the players giving back $267 million per season. That means a number of owners are convinced the players should shoulder THE ENTIRE BRUNT OF THE LEAGUE’S REPORTED LOSSES, even though the league’s reported losses — by any rational measure — are exaggerated. Sorry I went all Dan Gilbert on you with the cap locks (at least I opted not to use comic sans and didn’t predict I would win a championship before any of you), but I get disgusted any time someone kicks an unconscious person in the face, which is exactly what the owners are trying to do here. They’ve knocked the players out. The players are lying on the ground motionless. And some of these owners are trying to kick them in the face.

David Stern, from the sound of it, is actually trying to hold those owners back. But they’re strong, Stern’s losing his grip, and if the commish doesn’t hang on to those crazy mother-lovers with every bit of strength he has, things could get really ugly.