Sigh.

The NBPA player representatives and many other NBA players gathered in New York to officially consider the league's latest offer. The group didn't need much time before they emerged with Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher explaining the player rejected the offer and served the NBA with a Disclaimer of Interest which essentially disbands the union and ends their ability to collectively bargain with the league. This move gives the players the ability to pursue an anti-trust suit, but they are surely hoping to avoid a long and arduous lawsuit and instead settle with the NBA to resolve the lockout.

In other words, the players went all in, pushing their healthy paychecks to the middle of the table in an effort to call the owners' bluff to cancel the 2011-12 season. Adrian Wojnarowski reports on the details.

NBA commish David Stern quickly made his position clear that the players were getting bad advice and the owners have no intention of suddenly coming off of their demands and agreeing to a settlement. From Woj's report:

Stern warned the league was about to enter a "nuclear winter."

The players have been "hoodwinked by the combination of a huge void of any leadership and the chasm being filled by a self-serving Kessler," one ownership source told Yahoo! Sports. "It is inconceivable the path they've been manipulated to go down."

With all of the legal wrangling that lies ahead, everything will have to suddenly and illogically start going well to get a season started by January. But if things continue as they have, which is ta say, go poorly, then don't expect to see the Pacers in Conseco Fieldhouse any time soon.