NBA Lockout: League Cancels More Games, so Will the Season Be Saved?
As the NBA labor dispute goes to federal mediation, fans around the country are losing hope for the 2011-12 season. With games already cancelled through November 14, more bad news arrived yesterday about the fallout from the already-shortened season.
As reported by the Orange County Register, the league has begun to release arenas from some game commitments outside the original cancellation window. The two games axed so far are a Bulls home date with San Antonio on November 30th and a Lakers home game against Toronto on December 13th.
Technically, the games have only been moved from those specific dates, but with the schedule already thrown into a blender, it’s hard to believe they’ll be replaced. Both moves are to allow the host arenas to schedule additional days of the “Watch the Throne” concert tour from Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Two games are something of a drop in the bucket after losing two full weeks from the schedule, but this news certainly can’t be considered encouraging. Even in the best-case scenario—as the Register notes, the cuts could just be the visible signs of a planned reduction of the interconference schedule—the news serves as a reminder of just how much the NBA will have to shuffle its schedule to accommodate the shorter season.
In the long run, the new cancellations probably won’t have much of an effect on whether the season survives or not. Unfortunately, where the NBA lockout is concerned, no news continues to be bad news, and the chances of fans getting even a shortened season are dwindling with every fruitless bargaining session.
