How will you react if the NBA cancels its season?

[Deberg_1990]

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/stor...t-consequences



It doesn’t necessarily matter what NBA commissioner David Stern meant when he said on Wednesday that the upcoming weekend of negotiations between players and the league would determine “whether they can either have a season or not have a season.” Maybe it was a threat, as it sure seemed to be—a grand warning that if they did not accede to a deal, players would miss out on an entire year of salary. But the league is insisting it was not a threat, so maybe it wasn’t.

It’s not really important, though, because we don’t need any pronouncements from Stern to notice that the pages are slipping away on the NBA’s calendar, and with both sides reporting on Wednesday that no progress had been made, at the very least, the beginning of the season is in jeopardy.


The sides will meet again on Friday, and considering it will take about two weeks to iron out the details of a collective bargaining agreement, it’s clear that without significant movement this weekend, the season won’t start on time on Nov. 1. During the 1998 lockout, the league started canceling regular-season games on October 13, and that timeline should hold up this time around.

Canceling the season is still an option, but it’s on the back-burner. There are some who believe that once some games are missed, owners will be willing to axe the whole season, as the NHL did in ’05. But bear in mind, losing an entire season would not just be a hit to the players. It would be a big hit to the owners, too. There is a provision in the league’s television contract that pays the league even in the event of lost games, something that surely increases the owners’ bargaining power in the early stages of a lockout. Owners will still be feeding from their deepest trough, while players miss paychecks.

There is a catch, though—if the entire season is canceled, the owners will have to return the television money, plus interest. The threat of the season being canceled can be arrived at just by looking at the calendar and noting the lack of progress the two sides have made. But there would be no point to a preemptive canceling of the season on Stern’s part.

SI.com’s Sam Amick reports that Stern has laid out a Jan. 7 drop-dead date for cancellation of the season. That was the same deadline in ’99, when a scattered and shortened 50-game season began on February 5—with very negative results. Attendance fell by 2.2 percent, television ratings fell sharply and NBA Finals ratings went from 18.7 to 11.3. That was largely because of the retirement of Michael Jordan and the breakup of the Bulls, but still, it took a long time for the NBA to recover its popularity.

The league last season regained its relevance among fans. Players have a lot at stake in the case of a canceled season. But while owners might be in a better financial position to withstand a long lockout, they saw the NBA finally climb out of its post-Jordan doldrums, and they have a lot at stake here, too.

A canceled season is still a possibility. But we’re a long way from that point.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Gif Horse

The NBA hate on this site is basically closet racism rearing it's ugly head.

Attention whore auditions are tomorrow, come back then.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

6'0'' AND HAD A HOOP IN MY DRIVEWAY BITCHES! I ONCE GOT DUNKED ON BY KALEN GRIMES IN A PICKUP GAME AT THE MIZZOU REC!

Guess what - nobody gives a **** either way. Quit taking bait; it makes you look like more of an insecure d-bag than vailpass calling you an insecure d-bag ever could.

just speaking the truth dj, failpass is an idiot that doesnt know jack shit about nba and acts like we should all listen to him because he doesnt like the way the game is played anymore or nobody cares about the nba, blah, blah blah......zzzzzzzzzzzzz

ratings have never been higher since the early 90's, athleticism and skill has never been higher, global popularity has never been higher. ya the league has its problems but they'll get them fixed and be back at it. idiots who have no idea what they're talking about piss me off sometimes, so do pretentious cardinal fans. my bad.

[Epic Fail 007]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

I dont care too much about regular season NBA or NHL but they are fun to go to in person. Much better than watching on TV IMO. To each his own....

true input from a ass pickin kid

[Epic Fail 007]

Originally Posted by Pushead2

who gives a flying ****

GO DUCKS!

[Epic Fail 007]

Originally Posted by TEX

I could care less if the NBA season is cancelled. In fact, I could care less about the NBA folded.

LETS HOPE!

[Epic Fail 007]

NHL,NFL ALL THE WAY,IN FACT NHL IS SLIGHTLY MORE EXCITING THAN THE NFL

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by eric007

NHL,NFL ALL THE WAY,IN FACT NHL IS SLIGHTLY MORE EXCITING THAN THE NFL

The only thing I'll give NHL and MLS, is that if you are a fan of the sport, there are far less breaks in the action for commercials.

The number of commercials you see during a NFL game is just ridiculous.

[Alton deFlat]

[-King-]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Watch warmups if you ever get a chance.

They just don't miss. When they get a chance to set and fire, they simply do not miss. In games they might on occasion because of nerves or tired legs, but when they're just out there shooting around with fresh legs and no defenders, they hit probably 90% of the shots they take.

Then you watch the college kids do it - they aren't even that successful in a layup line.

You don't realize how damn hard that game is until you get a feel for just how freakish the people that play it are.

But whatever - some dumbass that loves watching scrappy walk-ons from Indiana miss open 14 footers says that the NBA doesn't have fundamentals.

This.


Even Rajon Rondo makes warm up shots with ease. Its crazy.


But I went to my first NBA game last year. Sixers vs. Kings. No great athletes other than Evans, but I was impressed. Of all things, I think basketball translates to the tv the worst. You can't compare live basketball to watching it on tv.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by -King-

This.


Even Rajon Rondo makes warm up shots with ease. Its crazy.


But I went to my first NBA game last year. Sixers vs. Kings. No great athletes other than Evans, but I was impressed. Of all things, I think basketball translates to the tv the worst. You can't compare live basketball to watching it on tv.

You can't compare any sport live to watching it on TV for the simple fact that you aren't watching it with 50,000 screaming lunatics spilling their beers.

I went to visit my cousins in California for a couple weeks and we went to an A's game, I believe it was A's vs Yankees. I'm not a fan of either team. It was a pitchers dual, and in the bottom of the 9th Tejada hits a gaming winning double off the wall to win 2-1. I was standing up screaming and everything. If I watched that game on TV I'm switching the channel as soon as the runner crosses home plate.

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

It's wrong.

Go ahead and try to put the 'fundamentally sound' Princeton Tigers in an offense as relatively braindead as Mike Brown's - they'd trip over their own feet. NBA offenses (and defenses) for that matter are miles ahead of the stuff they use in college.

The fundamentals in the NBA are actually exceptional. The passing is off the charts good, but the length of defenders is so incredible that they still tip some of them away. It's not a bad pass, it's just that they're playing on a court that was designed at a time when 6'6'' was a damn behemoth and now it's a shooting guard.

There's simply not a lot of room on an NBA court anymore. These guys are freakin' huge and they're fast. To be able to get a pass into the interior all is pretty impressive and it generally comes off some pretty nifty screens or exterior passing before the entry pass is even possible. These guys are able to control their dribble while they're getting mugged coming through the lane, they can switch hands in the air to finish and their court vision is remarkable.

An earlier post was right - you need to see a game in person to realize just how hard that game is. From up high it looks like there's plenty of space and it looks pretty easy. Get down courtside and listen to it. It's violent (like punching a side of beef), its crowded and its chaotic. The fact that these guys can even see across the court given the fact that they're throwing over guys with 8-9 ft wingspans is pretty incredible. What they're able to do in the passing game alone is amazing when seen at the level these guys actually play at.

Then to watch them receive a pass in a triple threat position, execute a great jab step and go straight up for a 15 footer (only to still be contested on a play that would've had a college defender falling on his ass) and sink it is just a thing of beauty. 80% of the plays in the NBA are built around the fundamentals; passing, screens, positioning and shooting technique. Sometimes the D blows your play up and an iso is necessary, but it's almost always a losing proposition anymore because these guys are just too athletic on defense.

The 'streetball' talk is just wrong. Oh there's probably an element of latent racism to it, but mostly it's just wildly uninformed. The fundamentals in the NBA are stronger than they've ever been. The quality of play is higher than its ever been. It took me a very long time to come back around on the league after the Riley-era Knicks/Heat drove it into the abyss. I damn near left again after the 2005 Finals where the officials gave Dwayne Wade a championship. But there's just no question that the league right now is absolutely incredible.

If you don't want to watch - don't. But I get really tired of people that clearly don't understand the intricacies of the game trying to speak to how awful it is.

I disagree with you about the strong fundamentals. Compare the fundamentals of say Argentina vs the USA when they play in the Olympics.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by L.A.Chieffan

just speaking the truth dj, failpass is an idiot that doesnt know jack shit about nba and acts like we should all listen to him because he doesnt like the way the game is played anymore or nobody cares about the nba, blah, blah blah......zzzzzzzzzzzzz

ratings have never been higher since the early 90's, athleticism and skill has never been higher, global popularity has never been higher. ya the league has its problems but they'll get them fixed and be back at it. idiots who have no idea what they're talking about piss me off sometimes, so do pretentious cardinal fans. my bad.

The dumb in you just oozes out.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Bo's Pelini

I disagree with you about the strong fundamentals. Compare the fundamentals of say Argentina vs the USA when they play in the Olympics.

Compare the talent level.
Posted via Mobile Device

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bo's Pelini

I disagree with you about the strong fundamentals. Compare the fundamentals of say Argentina vs the USA when they play in the Olympics.

A) You disagreeing with me is generally a feather in my cap.
B) The fact that you're referring to games where one team literally plays together for about 2 weeks before facing its opponent whereas the opponent has generally been practicing together for months speaks volumes.

The 2008 USA Basketball team was the first in over a decade that was actually picked for chemistry and told that they had to commit to playing/practicing together prior to the Olympics. They destroyed everyone. They outplayed everyone in every facet of the game, in fact.

Oh, and nevermind the fact that the best of those 'fundamentally sound' Euros actually play in the NBA. The only team to give the USA any kind of fight was Spain, and that was primarily because Pau Gasol is probably the most fundamentally sound big-man in the league. In fact, the 5 best players from that team are all in the NBA. Go ahead and compare that squad to Argentina if you'd like because Argentina got rolled by the US. The US was leading like 22-2 after the first few minutes and coasted from there.

This nebulous 'fundamentals' argument simply doesn't carry any weight. There are a handful of players that play lousy fundamental games; guys like Iverson and Marbury are the first names to pop up. The problem is that they tended to get their asses kicked a lot or play for bad teams. More importantly - they don't play anymore.

[L.A. Chieffan]

hey frazzy, go beer-bong some drano buddy. i hope pujols signs with the cubs and shits all over your pathetic whitebread fanbase. You guys make Angels fans look like N.W.A.