NBA Lockout: Cancelling Preseason Games Spells Doom for David Stern's Legacy

On its own, cancelling preseason games isn't that big of a deal. The NFL cancelled a grand total of one preseason game during its lockout, which seems to be a distant memory at this point.

While popular, the NBA doesn't match the NFL's popularity. So, if cancelled preseason games are all that comes out of this, Stern will be fine. Right now, his long-term legacy is still looking good.

But what's scary is that cancelled preseason games will likely lead to a shortened regular season. That would effectively kill Stern's legacy.

Depending on who you ask, Stern is either a great commissioner, or one of the luckiest men in the world. He became the NBA commissioner in February of 1984. If that doesn't mean anything, consider what was going on in basketball in February of 1984.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics were right in the middle of their rivalry that would dominate the NBA for the 1980's. Of course, that was led by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

That summer, the Chicago Bulls used the third pick in the NBA draft to take a shooting guard from North Carolina named Michael Jordan.

So, between the Magic/Bird rivalry and Jordan, Stern stumbled upon two goldmines. One or both of those entities drove the NBA through the mid 1990's, and even beyond.

While Stern did do a good job of increasing the level of marketing that his stars got, his league was largely driven by stars that he had little or nothing to do with creating.

But let's take a look at some of the negatives. In his tenure, we've seen several rather nasty brawls take place. The most notable of those was the "Malice in the Palace," started by Ron Artest.

We also saw a series of nasty brawls take place between the Heat and Knicks.

No, those aren't Stern's fault, but he deserves as much blame for them as he deserves credit for Michael Jordan.

While the NBA has always been dominated by big markets (Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York), we're now seeing an even greater disconnect. Even though the NBA has a salary cap, big market and warm weather teams have the same advantages that they do in baseball.

If you don't believe me, take a look at this and see if it jogs your memory.

All of that could be forgiven, but the ultimate problem is what we're seeing right now. For the second time in Stern's tenure, it appears as though regular season games are going to be cancelled.

The last time it happened was right after Michael Jordan's last year with the Bulls. The playoffs were great and even without Jordan, the league was at a high. After a lockout created a 50-game season, the league was hit.

Now, in 2011, there are many parallels. The NBA playoffs gave us some of the best, most exciting basketball that we've ever seen. The league has its proper heroes and villains in place.

But they can't seem to find a way to get their players on the court. Two lockouts that result in missed games are going to crush Stern's legacy.

Unlike the NFL, basketball players do have other options and much more stable contracts. They don't have as many reasons to concede.

Stern needs to find a way to get the players on the court as soon as possible. At this point, that's his one and only priority. If he can't, then all of the positives that came under his watch will be swept under the rug.