With the NBA owners and the NBA Players Union failing to compromise on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, according to ESPN, commissioner David Stern will be forced to cancel the first two weeks of the 2011-12’ basketball season by Monday, October 10th.
After one of the most exciting playoffs since the Michael Jordan era, many would think that a deal would have been made months ago to assure that a full 82-game season would be played come November 1st.
Since both sides each have their own reasons for not agreeing to a deal, the people who will be hurt most by a cancelled or shortened season will neither be the owners, nor the players, but ultimately the fans.
“This will be the first time since I was a little kid that there won’t be a regular start to the NBA season,” UCF sophomore Kyle Kaptaine said.
In 1998, the NBA owners and players union failed to come to an agreement, which resulted in a truncated 50-game regular season.
But with the players union specifically stating that they will not give in and accept a deal just to get back onto the court like they did in 1998, fans have even more reason to believe that a 2011-12’ season might not be played at all.
“I love going to the Magic games and cheering my favorite team on,” sophomore Joey Musumeci said. “Without an NBA season this year, I really think the league is going to lose a lot of fans, in addition to the boatload of money that they could be making.”
Commissioner Stern warned the players union that if they did not accept the deal that was offered on the table, that anything offered in the future would be much less than what they’d like.
Once Monday rolls along and the announcement is made that the first two weeks of the season has been cancelled, it will only be a matter of time before larger chunks of the season are put in jeopardy.
We will continue to update you on the CBA agreement as more details come in.
