At 3 AM Eastern Time, Billy Hunter, David Stern, Mo Evans and Derek Fisher made a season saving deal. |
Stunned? Yep. Shocked? Yep. Flabergasted? Yep. Excited? Out of my seat. You couldn't describe the feeling this morning when I heard this news. This issue went from lamentable to laughable to lovable. The NBA's back, you have got to be kidding me! This is like an early Christmas, and ironically this whole shebang starts on Christmas. How unbelievably fitting is that?
Now I know some people have been jumping all over the fact it was a "tentative, handshake agreement." But this deal is all but done. The NBA and NBAPA might as well just dismantle itself and leave the country if either decide to back out at this point. A handshake is a handshake my friends, and if you're a gentleman, you never go back on your handshake.
So here's what we have with a 66 game season starting on Christmas:
Probably no All-Star game.
A boatload of back-to-back games.
A seriously condensed training camp.
Playoffs and Finals each moved back a week, which means our season will end somewhere near the end of June.
One hell of a season.
This season is going to be absolutely off the charts. There will be so much excitement with the season starting on Christmas Day with three ridiculous match ups. Plus how could I not be pumped with MSG getting THE opening game of the entire regular season. As much as we all should be losing our heads over how out-of-the-blue this NBA season is, we need to realize a few things. One, the first 10-15 games are going to be pretty brutal. The normal NBA training camp is 4 weeks long, this year? 2 weeks. That means it's going to take a couple weeks worth of games for the big boys to get into shape and the slow ones to get with the playbook. Expect teams with veteran superstars like the Heat, Celtics, Knicks and Lakers to get off to quick starts while the younger playoff teams like the Thunder, Trailblazers, Hawks and Magic should have sluggish starts. Secondly, since the NBA season will be compacted into less days, that means there will be more back-to-back games. So once everyone gets used to their systems again, then the young teams should take over. The extra back-to-back games are going to benefit depth, not age. So LA and Boston, get your shallow benches ready to play, a lot.
I'm not ready to make any predictions about who I think is going to win it all. I mean the free agents haven't even signed their contracts yet. I'm just simply excited that I get to watch a basketball team in Madison Square Garden not named the Red Storm.
Get yo' popcorn ready this NBA season is going to be a wild ride.
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