The first two weeks of the regular season have been cancelled and, considering the disgusting way talks ended Thursday night, more cancellations are probably coming. But that may not necessarily mean we’re looking at a shortened season.
Two sources close to the negotiations said the union believes that Stern assured his ESPN and TNT television partners that, by back-ending the missed games, he can still deliver an 82-game season even if starts in December.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about a potential 82 game season that starts in December. Which makes me wonder how willing the NBA is to miss a full season.
All the talk lately is about seeing how the players react when they start missing paychecks in November. But the owners may have been assured that if they just held out until December, they could break the Union’s resolve, get the deal they want, and still get a full 82 games with no money lost (or at least minimized damage caused by the lockout).
It’s a little conspiracy-theorish, I’ll admit, but it makes sense to me. If it’s all about what happens when the players start losing checks, then what happens when the owners start missing games?
Trust me, I don’t want it to get to that. I wanted this deal done months ago. But if players call the owners on the “miss the season” bluff, then maybe more of them will actually negotiate so we can stop talking about this crap and start talking about actual basketball.
Am I grasping at straws? Yup. But that’s all most people are doing when it comes to figuring this thing out. That’s where we are.
