NEW YORK -- For the first time since dialogue began in earnest a year ago to re-negotiate the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement I'm getting negative feedback.

When the Board of Governors convened in New York last week they were informed by David Stern a serious snag has arisen regarding guaranteed years in the contracts of players.

The owners are pushing hard to downgrade from a maximum of seven (for players owning Bird Rights) and six (for those lacking) to four and three, respectively, as well as slicing several percentage points off the current annual increases of 12 percent and 10 percent.