NBA Lockout: Commissioner David Stern Cancels the First 2 Weeks of the Season

It's official: The NBA has canceled the first two weeks of the regular season.

Commissioner David Stern had set Monday, Oct. 10 as the last day he would go without a new collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the players before canceling the first two weeks of the regular season. No deal was made, so the scheduled Nov. 1 start of the NBA season is moot.

The Associated Press reports that both sides met on the final day the season in its entirety could be salvaged for seven hours. For the past week, the two sides had met every day in New York City to try and reach a deal on some of the most tumultuous issues, with the split of basketball-related income between the owners and players being the most notable.

Leading up to the deadline for preserving an 82-game regular season in 2011-12, each side stressed in press conferences and interviews that negotiations were not going well. Still, there was hope that those statements were made for the purposes of creating leverage and the two sides were in agreement about all but a small portion of revenue sharing.

Regardless of what specifically is keeping a deal from being reached, the lockout that began July 1 is still in full effect.

As it stands now, the NBA season is set to begin on Nov. 15.

What the next move of either side will be remains to be seen.

What is concrete, though, is that next season will be far from ordinary and could potentially begin in 2012.

It's truly unfortunate the NBA lockout is still ongoing, especially on the heels of arguably the league's best season ever.

I think I speak for all basketball fans by hoping a new collective bargaining agreement will soon be set in place and the topic of conversation can switch from economic differences—or which side of negotiations is wrong—to what teams free agents have signed with.