NEW YORK — NBA owners, losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, wanted an overhaul of the financial system to ensure themselves a chance to profit.

Players, believing they were the driving force behind record TV ratings and revenues, wanted to keep what they felt they deserved.

Now, negotiations that have lasted nearly two years need to end in the next few days.

Commissioner David Stern said he will cancel the first two weeks of the regular season if there is no agreement on a new deal by Monday, costing both sides money and driving away some basketball fans who might never come back.

“There is an extraordinary hit coming to the owners and to the players,” Stern said.

Not to mention the people who work in the game and the businesses that depend on it.

Stern has repeatedly said owners had two goals in the talks: a way to escape losses and a system where all teams could compete equally, noting that the NBA’s small-market clubs aren’t nearly as successful as Super Bowl champions like Indianapolis and Green Bay.