David Stern Keeps His Word, Cancels First Two Weeks of Season

David Stern and the NBA owners were prepared to do this the moment they put padlocks on their doors preventing players from going to work. After 7 more hours of fruitless negotiating, both sides emerged no closer today than they were over 100-days ago. Thus Commissioner Stern held to his threat of canceling the first two weeks of the regular season by doing just that.

Now we’ve reached the moment of truth. With no meetings scheduled for the near future. No progress made towards getting this labor dispute resolved. No chance to recoup what will be lost by nixing the beginning of the regular season. No way things will get better any time soon.

This is exactly what the owners have wanted all along. The card they’ve been prepared to play from day one was dealt from the bottom of the deck. With no other leverage except lost wages the owners are playing with fire.

Without knowing all that is going on behind those closed doors it would appear the owners aren’t exactly negotiating in good faith. To date the players have made the biggest concessions. Still that hasn’t been enough for the owners’ liking.

To be sure the players took their sweet time in making a real push. Derek Fisher’s leadership was needed much earlier. Maurice Evans’ dedication should have been more present in the early stages.

But that’s playing the blame game. The only game the fans care about seeing played is now delayed well into November at the earliest.

I’d say that there’s still time but that would be a lie. Time has run out. Now all that’s left is to try and salvage some portion of this season. Even that seems a long shot.