NBA: Preseason Games Cancelled, Training Camps Delayed

The NBA announced on Friday that it has officially canceled 43 preseason games, as reported by the Associated Press. In addition, team training camps have been postponed until a date not yet determined.

Camps were slated to open on Oct. 3 and preseason games filled the schedule from Oct. 9-15. While no one can express much of a surprise reaction, the announcement grants a more official slant to the situation.

Deputy commissioner Adam Silver spoke out in a press conference, saying:

"We have regretfully reached the point on the calendar where we are not able to open training camps on time and need to cancel the first week of preseason games. We will make further decisions as warranted."

Owners and players held another meeting on Thursday and found themselves—yet again—unable to reach a collective bargaining agreement. Following Friday's announcement, fans and athletes alike hope to see the regular season kick off as planned on Nov. 1.

However, when would an agreement need to be reached by in order to keep the regular season on track? SB Nation's Tom Ziller weighed in on the situation:

"

This thing is going all the way down to the wire; it's actually fun to see reporters continue to push the "drop-dead" date for the season to be preserved. We'd thought Oct. 1 would mark a real deadline to save the season start, but Berger offers up Oct. 14 as a date that would delay the season start but get us 82 games. So sometime in the next three weeks, we'll actually have a drop-dead date.

"

So, a few weeks—it can be done, right? Well, considering the players have been locked out since July 1, some individuals—including Players Association executive director Billy Hunter—err on the side of negativity and expect no season at all.

As players and owners continue to duke it out, we fans will wait patiently...but not for too long, please.