New York, NY

The NBA season is getting shorter and shorter as the lockout gets longer and now if any progress is to be made it might have to start in the courts rather than on it.

The NBA formally notified teams Tuesday that it has canceled games through Dec. 15 and the players in turn filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league in two states, taking the labor dispute to federal court.

The lockout reached its 139th day Wednesday and there does not appear to be an end in sight. Players rejected the latest offer from the owners and league and decertified their union.

The players have also brought in attorney David Boies, who blames the owners for the current plight of negotiations, saying players were willing to accept a lower percentage of revenues but owners insisted on more.

"By overplaying their hand, by pushing the players beyond any line of reasonableness, I think they caused this. You don't give up hundreds of millions of dollars unless you want to make a deal and that's what the players were doing," Boies said. "I think it was mistake to push it as far as they did."

NBA commissioner David Sterns essentially threatened the players union saying they needed to accept the owners' last economic proposal or face a harsher one. However, the league sees the players as the ones carrying out threats.

"We haven't seen Mr. Boies' complaint yet, but it's a shame that the players have chosen to litigate instead of negotiate," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement. "They warned us from the early days of these negotiations that they would sue us if we didn't satisfy them at the bargaining table, and they appear to have followed through on their threats."

The two suits were filed in California and Minneapolis.

Plaintiffs named on the lawsuit filed in the northern district of California are Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Kevin Durant, Leon Poew and Kawhi Leonard. Plaintiffs named on the lawsuit filed in Minneapolis include Caron Butler, Ben Gordon and rookie Derrick Williams.

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