All of this happened three months to the day after the last-ditch bargaining session that finally ended the lockout. Looking back on the night when the final negotiations began — Nov. 25, Black Friday — several people involved in the talks recreated an incredible scene that underscored just how close the NBA came to losing the entire season.

No Christmas Day. No 66-game schedule. No All-Star weekend. Nothing. Sometime between 7 and 9 p.m. ET on Nov. 25 — and various sources’ recollections of the exact timing vary by an hour or so — the 2011-12 NBA season almost perished.

In fact, based on accounts provided to CBSSports.com by people on both sides of the negotiations, the 2011-12 season was all but pronounced dead that night. Several times. Somehow, some way, it was brought back to life.

“It was almost a wrap quite a few times,” said Maurice Evans, a member of the players’ executive committee. “Numerous times, both parties almost ended it. But each time, it was a last-ditch effort by someone to keep us together.”

via Ken Berger of CBS Sports