NBA Lockout: New Talks Provide Nothing More Than Cautious Optimism

If you believe what you hear, there is some reason to be optimistic that the NBA Lockout may be nearing its bitter end.

Earlier on Thursday, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News was one person to report that there is still hope that the season can be preserved. Not only that, but the season would actually go the normal 82 games.

The talks didn't quite end there though. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, there is actually reason to suggest that the end of the lockout may be imminent.

Thursday, October 27 at 5:51 p.m. EDT

That's great. From the outside looking in, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic. Personally, I am not sure how I feel about cramming a full, 82-game season into such a short period of time, but I like that the talks are going in that direction.

But what I just can't bring myself to do, is to be too optimistic at this point. Can a deal get done? Absolutely, and I hope it does. The sooner the better.

But until a deal has actually been signed, I won't believe that anything too positive is happening. Call me a pessimist if you want to, but this is a deal that needs to be signed. Progress is simply not good enough until a deal is signed and the players are on the court.

The fact of the matter is that these are closed meetings. The only thing we hear are from the scribes standing outside of the meetings, and then whatever the two respective sides tell us in their press conferences.

That information passes through filters. Both sides want to win the P.R. battle and will talk in positive terms when the time comes.

There's nothing particularly wrong with that, we just need to take it with a grain of salt. It's okay to be pessimistic until a deal actually gets done.

Time will tell whether that will happen as people are now expecting, or if we're still in for days, weeks or even months of negotiations.

Be optimistic if you wish, but don't invest too much hope in anything. When a deal is signed, then it's time to rejoice, just not a minute before.