Report: Players, Owners Resume Negotiations in Order to Save Christmas Games

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NBA fans hoping to see basketball on Christmas may not have to give up all hope just yet after all.

According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the players and owners have resumed negotiations in an effort to end the lockout prior to Christmas.

NBA and players resumed talks on Tuesday to try and end the lockout before the cancellation of Christmas games, two sources told Y! Sports.
Derek Fisher isn't a part of the talks now, sources say.

It's imperative that fans don't hold their heads too high in optimism at this point as the two sides are merely talking, but it is definitely good news that they're once again talking.

Although optimism has been hard to find since the the players decided to disband the union, there was an understanding that if the NBA was going to save Christmas Day games, it was going to have to be by the two sides trying to hammer out a deal right around Thanksgiving.

The reason? As David Stern likes to say, it's simply a function of the calendar. The commissioner has been on the record several times stating that the league needs 30 days from whenever there is a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in place to resume regular activity.

It might be interesting to some that Fisher is no longer involved in the talks, but that's likely a result of the lawyers' presence rather than a sign of non-involvement on his part.

The polls might indicate that the general consensus is that basketball isn't missed, but when Dave Checketts erroneously reported that a new CBA had been reached, he was trending worldwide within 20 minutes of the news.

The love of the game is still running rampant among the fans, and there's no doubt basketball would be welcomed back with open arms if real, measurable progress can be made between the players and owners.

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