lol

First 2 weeks cancelled

So I've been playing NBA2k12 on xbox... does that count?

I was 16th draft pick, taken for 1.81m by the 76ers.

thread title is wrong, should read "NBA 2012-2013 thread"

aww i read thread title and thought there might actually be a season

There is!

If you like video games.

Whats these reports about the NBA Superstars touring the world...one possible destination is AUSTRALIAAAA...

Farking lock it in you fools and come down under...its the least you twats can do for cancelling pre-season and first 2 weeks of the season and possibly the whole season! How sick would that be? NBA All Stars in OZ?

yea that would not bode well for the Breakers...

http://www.foxsports.com.au/other-sp...-1226172438448

Confirmed players for World All-Star Classic:

Kobe, Wade, Amare, Griffin, Boozer, Durant, Bosh, DHoward, Garnett, Pierce, Rondo, Chandler.


No LeBron, Carmello, Chris Paul, Rose & Westbrook.

Australian leg is yet to be confirmed, apparently the game in Puerto Rico on Sunday has to be a success for the rest of the tour to happen.

Apparently Rod Laver Arena has been booked and paid for though.

Anyone go see Wade last Weds at Cook & Phillip Centre? Fark the weather was hot and it was crowded...managed to get some pics of him from a distance...spewing that a mate bumped into him on his normal Monday morning shootaround at the KGV courts and had a shoot around with him and his crew...Focker! So jealous!

close thread. Heading to the courts.

2011-2012 NBA season will not be.

Probably will not see Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan again. Sad way for two all-time greats to go out.

i can't believe we're about to lose the whole season. ffs...useless fucks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by trist

close thread. Heading to the courts.

2011-2012 NBA season will not be.

Probably will not see Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan again. Sad way for two all-time greats to go out.

yea no wonder all those guys were keen to Play, Kobe was dead keen to start again, his knees probably won't work anymore by the time they are back in action.

if the season is cancelled, does that mean 2 years worth of free agents when they are back>??? free for all

What a clusterfuck. Greedy fuckers on both sides, with too much money to burn. None of them deserve a cent.

And ironically it's the people who give them the money in the first place that are getting fucked over the most (the fans). But both the players association and the league have fucked themselves in the foot on this one. The past two years, the NBA has made a terrific resurgence in popularity. And at the peak of this resurgence they have now lost a season. Good going.

Don't worry NBA dudes, when the NHL had their lockout, the league came back a shitload better than what it was and has only been improving more and more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TroyShaun

yea no wonder all those guys were keen to Play, Kobe was dead keen to start again, his knees probably won't work anymore by the time they are back in action.

if the season is cancelled, does that mean 2 years worth of free agents when they are back>??? free for all

According to this article...Kobe has an hidden agenda to play because he stands to lose the most. And, MJ MJ MJ...what about you doing!??!!??

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/...gacies-rip-nba

Quote:

Tarnished legacies ... RIP NBAThe biggest problem with the lockout? The key figures weren't selfish enough

The biggest problem with the NBA is that the principal players in this lockout saga weren't selfish enough. That's how we got to this point, with a season that has yet to begin and might never do so. If the key figures had been thinking of themselves and their legacies, we'd be looking ahead to the Celtics playing the Heat this week instead of staring down at the ashes from a charred league and scorched reputations.



They didn't have to be altruistic, although that would have been nice. Had they resolved the differences on the periphery of an agreement that would bring $2 billion to each side, it also would have brought money to the arena workers and team employees who can't afford to go without paychecks in order to prove a point. It would have brought enjoyment to the fans whose interest and money make this league possible in the first place. But the NBA and its players didn't have to consider any of those things. Simply being self-centered would have done it. A little more concern for which adjectives would be used around their names in the historical record could have kept them and their league from one of its darkest episodes. Had they cared more about preserving their own images, the ancillary benefits would have been enormous, to use one of David Stern's favorite words.



It starts with Stern, the commissioner who led the NBA's unprecedented growth over a quarter of a century. But what's the point in having television deals from Chicago to China if you don't have any games to show? Twice the league has ground ashore with Stern at the helm; if he were a ship's captain, he'd have his license revoked. And let's not forget that Stern also employed a referee who phoned in confidential information and betting tips from NBA arenas to his gambling buddies. The more negative stories that continue to be added to the narrative, the harder it is to write them off as mere blips. Ask baseball commissioner Bud Selig or NHL commissioner Gary Bettman what happens when there's a blank entry sticking out on your league's list of all-time champions. Your reputation never recovers, and the fans or media are predisposed to thinking you'll get things wrong, not right.



Equally culpable is Stern's negotiating counterpart, Billy Hunter, who will be remembered as the union leader who decided that the best course of action was to remove himself from the equation. The biggest problem for Hunter is that he came to that realization far too late in the process. What a stunning waste of time and salary. It would be better to go down as the union executive who signed off on a bad deal than one who couldn't get a deal done at all. Can you name the union leaders who agreed to the salary cap or the rookie wage scale? I doubt it. Those were setbacks for the players as well, but at least no games were lost in the process, which is why you've never bothered to ask who was responsible.



Union leaders are like game officials: the less we hear their names, the better the job they're doing. Baseball has enjoyed such a long period of labor peace, I needed a Google search to learn the name of the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. I still have no idea what Michael Weiner looks like. Those are both good things.



I wish one of the dovish owners had stood up and tried to shame his hawk colleagues into signing a deal, even if it meant incurring a heavy fine from Stern. As long as Heat owner Micky Arison was going to get docked 500 large for a couple of harmless tweets (including an lol @Donald Sterling), he should have named names and called out all the owners who were impediments to getting a deal done. That would've been enough to get me to sign up for a trip on one of Arison's Carnival cruise ships to help him defer the cost of the fine.



Some say Stern had to call in every favor he could just to present this deal to the players, unpalatable as it might have seemed to them. There were enough owners who thought even a 50/50 split was offering too much to the players. Michael Jordan has been identified as one of those owners. Jordan, coming up on a decade since his last NBA jump shot, is going to be known to the next generation of potential shoe buyers as a Scrooge-like owner, not an iconic basketball player. It's similar to the way kids today think of Bruce Jenner as the powerless male in the Kardashian household, not the Olympic decathlon champion who was on Wheaties boxes before they were born. Jordan always tried to avoid controversy as a player because he wanted to preserve his image, but now this version of him is retroactively damaging the player brand. Jordan single-handedly elevated the league in the 1990s. But our freshest memory is of someone who helped lead the NBA down a dark path.



For a moment Kobe Bryant seemed to be the one person who did see the risk to his legacy, including what could be his last shot to match Jordan's ring count of six. Kobe also needs five seasons of scoring over 2,000 points in order to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer. It would be a lot easier for him to make one of those seasons this year, at age 33, then to replace it with a year when he'll be 38. And let's not forget that Kobe literally has more to lose than any other player this season, as he was scheduled to make a league-high salary of $25.2 million. That's why he came out in favor of accepting the owners' proposed 50/50 offer. He clearly had the most at stake. Maybe now, in his newfound free time, he can finally sign that contract the Italian team general manager kept swearing was a done deal. Arrivederci.



So long to all the suckers. They didn't realize how easily they could be replaced. Scott Van Pelt was able to move his radio show along with three simple words: "NFL Week 10." Just like that, the lockout issues were forgotten, left in the previous hour, and he was on to topics listeners really cared about.



What the NBA, particularly the players, failed to realize is that there's a difference between valuable and necessary. Yes, fans and sponsors are willing to pay a high price for the product. But they're also capable of living without it. It's not essential. That's why the players had no leverage. Fans want to see them play, but they weren't clamoring for it. No one set up tents outside the arenas and refused to leave until the lockout ended.



It's why the players were never going to get a deal they liked. Maybe they found the owners' last offer too restrictive, with too many limits on what the higher-spending (and likely better) teams could do. It still was a better deal than the hard-cap, salary-rollback, mid-level-exception-eliminating proposal that had been forecast for months. I now believe those most onerous threats were just a long con by the owners, a protracted setup to make this version of the collective bargaining agreement seem benign.



I still can't believe that after the players made the huge sacrifice of $300 million a year by dropping down to a 50 percent share of revenue, they would balk at the thought of a few million dollars for a few players -- which is what the remaining system issue differences amount to.



But the players felt betrayed. "The deal was, 'If we give you the money back, give us the system issues,'" an agent said in a text message. "And the NBA replied, 'We will take both, thank you.'"



The owners couldn't quit while they were ahead, the players couldn't call it a night when they were less behind. No one emerged as a hero, no one was willing to risk a few skeptical looks from his colleagues in order to be seen as a savior in the public eye.



One of the players' complaints over an owner proposal was that the league's growth rate to get to a point where the players could retain 51 percent of the revenue would never happen. Well, that's guaranteed now. These shortsighted negotiators didn't just wipe out games, they wiped out momentum. They've turned away fans.



What's the legacy for all those responsible? Perhaps it can be summarized in a bitter text I received from my South Florida friend who got swept up in the Heat hype last season, went to NBA games for the first time and (with some encouragement from me via text messages) became so obsessed with the NBA that she rearranged her schedule to watch playoff games no matter which teams were in action. On Tuesday, that one-time excitement was replaced with resentment:

"U got me into a sport that I can't even watch."



Don't blame me. Blame the people who didn't care about their legacies.

Not sure what I'm gunna do now. NBA league pass gets me through the AFL offseason. Please sort this sh!t out NBA!!!

hoping that everything goes fine now that the player's union is now dissolved

The court case isnt until February 29, 2012. This season is done

Oh didn't know that, this is very awful specially to the fans who still hoping for a season. guess everyone will have to adapt

Apparently they are moving the court case to Minnesota - supposedly speeds up the time they can get to court. Still baffles me why the players union didnt come back to the NBA's final offer and say. We will except if the following points are changed. That way the NBA would look like the bad guys. Makes me think the players union are playing games.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/11/25/l....ap/index.html

Quote:

NBA owners and players reached a tentative agreement early Saturday to end the 149-day lockout and hope to begin the delayed season on Christmas Day.

Good for you Spurs fans aye, think last time you won a championship was when there was a lockout


Thank goodness this lock out is finishing, come on Xmas games

Fuck yeah Santa! You've really outdone yourself this year with your present selection.

NBA is on!!!!

im getting into it this season again, havent followed since they got rid of my sonics, have to pick a team now.

Pretty excited the ego club sorted out their differences and we get some ball !

68 game season is nice for the Lakers, might help us with our old legs hahaha

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdoodle

im getting into it this season again, havent followed since they got rid of my sonics, have to pick a team now.

Good to see jdoodle. Yeah, the Sonics being stolen I think was one of the darkest moments the league has had. 41 years of basketball history flushed away.

I have some friends in Seattle and they reckon a lot of the hardcore basketball fans support Portland now. As to be expected, the Zombie Sonics are the most hated team in the league in Seattle….ahead of the Lakers and Heat.

the trailblazers hey, let me go have a look, portland is the next closest city

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanky

68 game season is nice for the Lakers, might help us with our old legs hahaha

Depends on the scheduling. In the 50 game 98-99 season the veteran teams just got worn down playing 4-5 games a week, and then playing back-to-back playoff games. This is how the Knicks (the 8th seed) got to the Finals.

I hope the NBA has learnt their lesson and don’t condense the season…..not least because it’s the Celtics last roll of the dice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdoodle

the trailblazers hey, let me go have a look, portland is the next closest city

LaMarcus Aldridge is turning into a superstar. A little bit like a young Kevin Garnett.

yeah aldridge is a gun, great to watch.

im an ex sonics fan, don't mind the thunder, but yet to feel that passion for any team since the sonics disappeared. Just love watching ball, and the nba is bursting with talent at the moment. so happy this season is going to happen!!

I too was a Sonics fan, then Kemp broke my heart....watched the 96 finals again recently... he was just hitting SUCH a peak then, and fell off immediately...fuck. best player in that series by a fucking mile. wahahhhhh

I havenm't had a proper team since although I'm starting to get that way about the Clippers. I love an underdog and they are so young and exciting. i just wish Donald Sterling would drop dead though, what a piece of subhuman shit.

So are we starting our fantasy league again this (half) season?

Its about time they got there shit together and put the show on back for the fans.

CMON CHI TOWN

all things go to plan, it's going to be a cracker opening day...

Heat @ Mavs
Celtics @ Knicks
Bulls @ Lakers

what a freakin awesome way to spend Boxing Day.

Like Big Kev says...I'M EXCITED!

Wonder if there be any big moves on Dec 9th...free agency period begins...think most notable be Dallas trying to re-sign Chandler...

Interesting story from RealGM...apparently the players who signed to play in China might not be able to opt-out and return to the NBA...

Dallas? Are you kidding me, Trackmasta? All the attention will be on the Heat for sure. They will cash in their full mid-level exception on someone like Battier and top this off with amnesty guys like Davis or Carter. If they can add another 3 decent players to the Miami Thrice it’s hard to imagine them not winning this season. The question is how much to bet?

Denver are probably going to lose Nene to free agency, and apparently have Smith, Martin and Chandler all in China with no opt-out clause. How does that happen?!

Stupid management. Pretty sure Patty Mills only just signed in China like 2 weeks ago. Would be spewing! Portland actually have a decent team these days.

pre-season set to kick off Fri Dec 16 (Sat Dec 17 Aust time) with:
Phi v Was
Cle v Det
NO v Mem
http://www.nba.com/gameline/20111216/

i'm wanting to sign up for league pass this season, anybody else use it?

it seems all i can do for now is submit my email address to be sent info when packages become available.

Are there different packages, if so what do they consist of? How much am I looking at?

cheers in advance

in previous years, there was only 1 "package" - the only thing you picked was how long you wanted to pay for i.e. whether to bundle the playoffs into it. the page now mentions "team pass" as well, so i presume it's going to be like some other leagues where you can follow a team i.e. you only get to see their games. personally i'll be going for the full deal - nothing like being able to watch 6 hours straight of basketball, jumping around between games to follow the close ones.

i think last year, for the full package (season + playoffs), it came to about $200? the price pretty much stayed the same through the first couple of months of the season, meaning it became less value for money, until about halfway when they introduced a reduced price, which again stayed locked until playoffs, and then you could buy a playoffs package. buy it before the season starts - you'll get the best value for money, and really, it's not that much.

^^ awesome, thanks mate.

Just a cpl other q's...
can you watch games that have already happened or only live as they're played? and can you watch them from anywhere or just one assigned computer?
is there anything to stop me going in with a couple of mates just buying the one package and sharing a log-in?

Cheers again

yep, you can watch games that have already happened. i did that fairly regularly as most games happen when i'm at work - get home, grab a beer, fire up league pass and watch whatever game you want that night. in theory you could watch ANY game - even on the last day of the regular season, you could watch a game from opening night months ago. now, i never tested that theory, so maybe they did introduce some cutoff point, but i watched games that were at least a week old more than once.

as for sharing - i didn't try it, so not sure. they'd log your IP as you signed in, so if a friend tried logging in just after you they'd either block them or kick you off - they're not gonna allow 2 different IPs at once. but i'm sure you could use it from different computers at different times of the day though. but like i said, i didn't try, so don't take my word as gospel on this, and shit...they could change it this year.

My mate bought it last year & gave me log in details whenever we were on at the same time it logged you out after about 5mins.

living in NY at the moment, gonna try to get tix to celtics game on xmas day. top tier of MSG will likely be $300+ each though which sorta sucks. had to fork out similar to that for the jets cowboys opening game so dont mind.

lot of buzz over here at the moment surrounding CP3, personally id rather see the knicks sign a big man - someone like pau gasol etc.

the short season will def suit a lot of teams so could be very interesting, sorta sick of watching college ball by now so thankful they got the agreement sorted

Living in NYC huh, im jealous as all fark !!!!!!