NBA Commissioner David Stern is not in a giving mood these days despite having an office that overlooks the holiday-season revelry of glittery Fifth Avenue. Stern figures he has given enough over the years. His league lost some US$370 million a year ago and is looking at another financial disaster in 2010.

"The system has produced an extraordinary financial pool for our players where the average compensation exceeds US$5 million," Stern said. "There needs to be a re-set in our system. We think there's room within that system that the owners can be put in a position where every team can have an opportunity to compete and be profitable."

The commissioner spoke of a time when he expected there to be multiple NBA franchises in Europe, and the chances that LeBron James could lead the Miami Heat to the title.

The 68-year-old, long-time commissioner is focusing all his attention on hammering out a new labor deal with the players and preventing the league's first lockout since the 1998-99 season. The players receive 57 percent of the NBA's revenues but Stern said the costs of generating that money had increased dramatically.

"This split is directed toward the gross," said Stern. "And in the interim, as the percentage has crept up in successive deals, to 57 percent, concessions were made to the players. But the cost of producing the pie has been going up as well. But the players don't share in that cost. They only share in what the cost generates. Everything has gone up."

Stern cited security, airline fuel and game presentations as a few of the areas where costs had risen dramatically. He said players' expectations needed to change.

"We need to come up with a sustainable business model that will cause owners and prospective owners to be willing to make the large investments to grow our game on a global basis."

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