The labor dispute in the National Basketball Association (NBA) took a turn for the worse Tuesday when players decided to disband their union and sue the league because they find the team owners' last offer of 50-50 profit sharing not good.

The lawyer of the NBA Players Association, Jeffrey Kessler, announced the decision of the players after a four-hour meeting with their representatives at a New York City hotel. Another union lawyer hired on Monday, David Boies, said the disbandment of the union was prompted by the end of the collective bargaining process and the lack of purpose for further negotiations.

NBA Commissioner David Stern called the disbandment and lawsuit a "charade" that will not scare team owners into giving in to the players' demands.

The union rejected Monday the offer of team owners to equally split $4 billion in league revenues arguing that they were losing $300 million per year. In the last collective bargaining agreement that expired in July, the sharing was 57 for the players and the rest for the team owners.

Other issues that remain to be ironed out are salary cap structure, trade clauses, "luxury tax" and a fee for high-paying teams, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The NBA lockout was already on its 137th day Tuesday preventing the timely start of the new season. Two weeks of the season and games in November were already cancelled causing the league to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. The preseason was also cancelled with a loss of $200 million.

The league adjusted the season's games to 72 with a Dec. 12 opening. But this is now in jeopardy because of the union's action, according to Stern.

The NBA has a pending unfair labor practice charge against the union before the National Labor Relations Board. The complaint was filed early this year in response to what the NBA claims were "threats" made by the players and their refusal to bargain in good faith.

In August, the NBA also petitioned the Manhattan federal court to declare its lockout legal to counter the countersuit now being planned by the union.