Commissioner David Stern is clearly ready to move on from this whole lockout mess. He wants to 
pretend it never happened and just play basketball. But things don’t work that way.
The fans still feel a little scorned by what happened, by the loss of some of their season and having to worry when they’d ever see pro basketball again.
So Stern sent out a letter to all the fans, thanking them for their loyalty and trying to get them pumped for the upcoming season. It reads like a press release, not a personal letter, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Take a look:
“Dear Fans,
On behalf of the entire NBA family, I want to thank you for your patience and support over the past several months. The new collective bargaining agreement is designed to provide more competitive balance for our league, reward strong performances by our players, and strengthen our game by improving its economics. We believe this agreement will benefit our teams, players, and most importantly, fans by making the NBA stronger.
In the days and weeks ahead, all of us hope you will enjoy the run-up to the start of the season: free agency, training camp, and preseason games. Each NBA team will be hosting special events for fans, so be sure to check your favorite team’s website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed for details. This season we look forward to bringing you more of everything you love about NBA basketball: incredible competition, tremendous excitement, and unending hard work and dedication by the world’s best athletes.
Thank you for being an NBA fan. I hope you enjoy the season, which promises to be a most exciting one.”
If I was commissioner, and I had put all my fans through this, my apology would not be short enough to fit into a blog post. I wouldn’t be promoting my new collective bargaining agreement that took months to figure out, putting a lot of people through stress and unemployment. I wouldn’t be pimping out teams’ Facebook and Twitter pages either. I really wish Stern had put a little more personality into this letter instead of just coming off like an NBA commercial.
Looking at the tone of this post, I think I’m still dealing with some residual bitterness from the lockout, but I guess it’s time to look on the bright side. The season is finally here!
