According to NBC Sports it appears as if Los Angeles Lakers guard and head of the player’s union Derek Fisher has sent a text message to various players around the league telling them to be physically ready for the NBA season.



The league has been locked out since the former collective bargaining agreement expired earlier this summer, and many people have been expecting a long, strenuous period of negotiations that may cost the NBA the 2011-12 season.

However, this new report is slightly more optimistic than the doom and gloom reports that we were receiving earlier this summer.

Sports Illustrated is now reporting that Fisher has sent a text to the players informing them that the 2011 season may indeed start on time:

“On the heels of Roger Mason’s now-infamous tweet in which the NBPA vice president wrote, “Looking like a season. How u,” but later claimed his account was hacked, one league source claims that union president Derek Fisher text-messaged numerous players last week indicating that some progress had been made and imploring them to be physically prepared just in case the season started on time.”

While this certainly doesn’t mean anything until the owners actually propose a new CBA, it is more encouraging than the reports that surfaced back in July saying the season was going to be cut in half if not lost entirely.

Until more definitive news arises this will stand as one of the few bits of optimism concerning an agreement between the players and the owners.