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NEW YORK -- Isiah Thomas, who has been both an NBA part-owner and union
                 president, thinks the players might need to replace Billy
Hunter and Patrick Ewing
                 at the bargaining table in order to get a deal done.

                 "Billy Hunter has that option, and it may be an option
                 that he and Patrick decide they want to explore,"
                 Thomas said Monday as the lockout finished its fifth
                 month. "You've got to protect the players, and you can't
                 keep letting the players get hurt."

                 Saying he expects the season to be canceled because
                 of the mistrust that has developed, Thomas said the
                 players have three choices.

                 "They can not have a season, they can take a tough
                 deal or they can get some new blood at the table. It's a
question of which choice
                 they will make," he said.

                 "This is no knock on anyone, but the way I always ran the
union was if we
                 brought in talent and that talent wasn't performing, we had
the opportunity to bring
                 in someone else who would perform."

                 Thomas played for the Detroit Pistons from 1981 to 1994 and
was president of
                 the union from 1990 to 1994 before becoming vice president
and part-owner of
                 the Toronto Raptors.

                 He currently works as an analyst for
                 NBC on its NBA telecasts.

                 Having seen past negotiations from both
                 sides of the table, Thomas has a unique
                 perspective on the current crisis. And it's
                 so bad, he says, that there will not be a
                 season.

                 "That's the way I read the cards," he said
                 in a telephone interview. "There has to be
                 a level of trust and understanding, and the
                 people negotiating this deal do not trust
                 one another and therefore are not able to
                 negotiate honestly."

                 Monday marked the 11th day since the
                 last full negotiating session was held, and
                 Tuesday will mark the second missed
                 payday for players.

                 The sides are at odds over whether there
                 will be preconditions for a resumption of
                 talks.

                 In the debate over whether the owners
                 would really cancel the entire season,
                 Hunter has questioned whether the
                 owners would be "suicidal."

                 Thomas says they would.

                 "I've been in the room with these guys, and it's very, very
real. It's not a bluff,"
                 Thomas said.

                 "And the problem here is that both sides have come to the
table and thought the
                 other was bluffing or posturing instead of getting down to
the nitty-gritty of a
                 deal."

                 Now, however, he said "there's a lack of trust at the table
that is not good."

                 No players have called for Hunter, the union director, and
Ewing, the union
                 president, to step aside, but Thomas said the players will
have to consider it.

                 "That's an option the union has and should always have,"
Thomas said. "It's OK to
                 be unified, but I prefer to have unity with money.

                 "From my experiences, whenever you have a labor negotiation
impasse and you
                 have bad blood at the table, then from a union's
perspective if your goal is to
                 represent (all the players), it might be like in a
basketball game when you're down
                 12 in the third quarter, and you've got to sub.

                 "You've got to rebuild some trust between the sides."

                 Hunter did not return a call seeking comment. 
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