Commissioner David Stern says union attorney Jeffrey Kessler is largely to blame for the NBA's stalled labor talks after Kessler told The Washington Post that the owners are treating the players "like plantation workers."

Kessler, who also represented the NFL Players Association in their collective bargaining negotiations this summer, told The Post on Monday that the owners' latest offer to essentially split basketball-related income in half was not fair to the players. Stern said Sunday night that players had until the close of business Wednesday to accept the offer, or face a far stricter version.

"To present that in the context of 'take it or leave it,' in our view, that is not good faith," Kessler told the paper on Monday night before the union announced Tuesday it would not accept Stern's offer. "Instead of treating the players like partners, they're treating them like plantation workers."

Stern, in a phone call with The Post on Tuesday, called the labor situation "dire" and placed blame squarely on Kessler's shoulders.

"Kessler's agenda is always to inflame and not to make a deal," Stern told the paper, "even if it means injecting race and thereby insulting his own clients. ... He has been the single most divisive force in our negotiations and it doesn't surprise me he would rant and not talk about specifics. Kessler's conduct is routinely despicable."