The NBA is expected to postpone two more weeks of the season Tuesday, extending a lockout that already has cost the league the first two weeks of the season.
The New York Daily News reports that an announcement through Nov. 28.
As dire as that might sound, it’s not as bad as league officials had hinted. Commissioner David Stern had said that games through Christmas were in jeopardy when talks broke off last week.
The league still hasn’t written off those Christmas games which traditionally kick off the season for many casual fans.
The News reports that Stern has said it will take a month to put the new collective bargaining agreement in writing, conduct free agency for upwards of 150 players, and run a short training camp and an abbreviated preseason schedule.
So even in the most ideal circumstances it will take about four weeks from the settlement until we would see the first games of the season.
It’s disappointing, but not unexpected, that two more weeks will be lost. But it’s not as a dire as postponing all of the games through the end of the year.