A league that deftly sidestepped a labor stalemate will now look to loosen the flow of the game.

Mutombo, a vice president in the National Basketball Players Association, has been instrumental in trying to keep 400-plus players informed and united in their labor stalemate with the owners.

Last month, the N.B.A. sued the union in United States District Court to persuade the court that its labor stalemate was not a court issue.

In separate telephone interviews recently, Baldwin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Snider of the Philadelphia Flyers discussed the labor stalemate.

After a 32-day lockout during the labor stalemate between the players and club owners, the teams got to work last Tuesday.

Selig wriggled away without satisfactorily responding to any of Costas's tough, aggressive queries on the labor stalemate and other issues.

This lockout was the longest labor stalemate in the 105-year history of the Middletown Works.

The N.B.A. launched the legal fracas last month by filing suit to prove that its labor stalemate with the union did not belong in Federal court, but at the negotiating table.

"Of course, we are observing, for the style and the approach," Goodenow said of the current labor stalemate.

Still, they were cheered from introductions to final outs by a full house of 5,085 fans, who showed no sign of bitterness over the labor stalemate that had forced the strange spring.