"I'm not your child."

Those were the words of Miami superstar Dwayne Wade directed at NBA Commissioner David Stern during today's labor talks between the players and owners. Obviously things are getting heated between the two sides.

Stern supposedly pointed a finger in the direction of Wade during today's session while making a comment and Wade barked back at him, "You're not pointing your finger at me. I am not your child." Wade reportedly felt as if Stern was belittling him.

Talks got so heated at that point that the players in the room nearly stormed out. Union executive directive Billy Hunter calmed the players down and asked the players to remain at the negotiation table with Stern and the 10 owners present.

Think there might be a sense of urgency in trying to get a deal done?

Both the league and players cautioned that a deal is still far from close, but talks will resume in a much smaller forum tomorrow. The contingent of big-name players on hand today will not be present tomorrow.

In the meantime, the Italian League team, Virtus Bologna, that offered Kobe Bryant a contract announced today that they had a deal with him to join their team. The deal is reportedly for about 10 games over a 35- to 40-day period and worth about $3 million.

There are some scheduling conflicts posed by two of the other teams in the league which could hinder the deal, but Virtus is confident Kobe will still sign the deal.

Checking In... Lockout News

It's been a very quiet off-season and lockout thus far. The league and players have met several times in recent weeks but without any progress on reaching a new labor deal.

In the meantime, because it's getting close to when training camps would normally begin, the league postponed camps indefinitely today and announced the cancellation of the first week of pre-season games this season of 43 games. There's really nothing to be optimistic as far as getting a season started on time at this point, but we're probably still about a week away from reaching panic mode.

With the lockout looking like it will linger well into the fall season, several players have already taken to signing with teams overseas, primarily in Europe, to stay in game shape.

Pau Gasol is already over there, and now Kobe Bryant has an offer on the table from an Italian team for about $6.75 million. Now the question is, will he take the offer and play there until the lockout ends?

We'll know soon enough.