The NFL's party week was briefly interrupted by a sobering message about the league's labor situation.

Now it could be the NBA's turn.

The league's collective bargaining agreement also will expire in 2011, and management and the players' association will meet next weekend during the All-Star events in Dallas as they try to negotiate a new one.

Indications are it won't be easy. CBSSports.com, citing a person familiar with the document, reported that the first proposal the league sent the union last week called for a reduction of the players' share of the basketball-related income from 57 percent to less than 50, as well as reductions in the length and amount of maximum value contracts, and elements of a "hard" salary cap to replace the current system that forces teams exceeding the cap to pay a luxury tax.

Neither the league nor the union have commented about the proposal, but it surely will be a topic when commissioner David Stern, and perhaps players' association executive director Billy Hunter, meets with the media Saturday.

Stern said he will not ask Hunter to avoid saying anything that would spoil the good times in Dallas, where the league is expecting Cowboys Stadium to host the largest crowd ever to watch a basketball game.

Hunter sometimes appears with Stern at the commissioner's annual state of the league news conference All-Star Saturday night, but it's not clear if he will do so this year -- especially if Friday's bargaining session goes poorly.

The sides already held some informal meetings last summer and exchanged some financial documents, getting an early start on what could be difficult negotiations. The economic downturn hit many team owners hard and they are seeking significant changes in a system that the players argue has largely worked.

Stern has said the central issue will be the division of revenues, though a reduction in maximum deals surely would anger some of the league's superstars -- especially with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade among those hoping to sign some this summer.

Stephon Marbury has returned to basketball -- this time, playing in a parched, polluted city in China after making himself unwelcome in the NBA.

The team is officially called Shanxi Fenjiu, named for a local grain alcohol, but is more commonly known as the Brave Dragons.

Home court is a grimy 5,300-seat arena with dragon decals peeling off the worn hardwood. The sports heroes whose posters hang on the baby blue walls outside the locker room are Chinese Ping-Pong and badminton athletes.

How did "Starbury," the brash New Yorker with a tattoo on the side of his head who lately has become better known for his bizarre online stunts and run-ins with coaches and owners, end up in a provincial rustbelt city that's home to the Coal Museum of China?

"It was an opportunity to allow my brand to grow in a different distribution channel," he said, referring to his Starbury line of low-priced athletic shoes and clothing. "And I wanted to get back onto the basketball court."

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