David Stern just gave a comprehensive interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons on his podcast, revealing many nuggets about the state of the NBA lockout, the specifics of the NBA’s proposals, the future of negotiations, the league’s stance on revenue sharing and the many different public statements made on both sides.

Perhaps the most important part of the interview came at the end, when Stern essentially listed Labor Day weekend as the deadline for when serious progress must be made. Stern said that if exhibition games must be canceled, then the owners’ proposal may “be really ugly from an economic standpoint for the players, because it’s going to be really ugly from an economic standpoint for the teams.” He added that he fears the chances of a full season being missed increase dramatically if progress is not made by then.

“If Labor Day comes and goes without us ready to huddle in and kiss off our Labor Day weekend to make this deal, then we may be headed to a bad place,” Stern said.

via Mike Prada of sbnation.com