The Basketbocalypse is upon us

“No Collective Bargaining Agreement, huh? All Right! Welp, see ya later!“

Last night the NBAPA came out and refused the NBA’s final offer. The next step is then for their union to de-certify (basically breaking up their own union) so that they may file an anti-trust lawsuit against the owners.

Ya, that vid pretty much sums up how I feel about the NBA season these days.

Meh. Turns out that you CAN survive the first half of November without professional basketball.

There are other things to keep our minds occupied, and the NBA will learn this soon enough. The public’s attention span is extremely limited, so not having Lebron, Kobe, Dirk et al frequently on our TV screens will leave them forgotten.

It’s unfortunate, because we were heading towards an all-time entertaining season, with more exciting young talent then I can ever remember the league having in my short life. Combine them with the established all-star names mentioned before, and it could’ve been a very unique campaign.

In fact, here’s a list of things I’ll miss most about the nonexistent season:

1. Kevin Durant. He’s LeBron V2.0. Big enough to play PF, quick enough to defend PGs, and a smooth, calmness about him that the ‘King’ seems to lack .
2. The Clippers. Everyone loves a good underdog story, and there’s been no bigger underdog over the past decade then the Clips. Obviously, Blake Griffin brings excitement by the boatload, and we’re missing a season of his ‘prime.’ But Eric Gordon was showing signs of becoming a player similar to a young Ray Allen – just a BOMBER.
3. DeMar DeRozan. Poor guy was just ready to bust out after gaining notoriety in the Slam Dunk competitions the last 2 years. Hopefully he’s taking 1000 three-pointers a day.
4. Christmas Day games. This was one of my favourite sports traditions. The NBA would always save the best match ups for Xmas, which you could always count on watching all day after opening presents and stuffing your face. Now? Just hockey, college sports and football to satisfy my holiday sports hunger.
5.  The rookies. While it was a particularly weak draft class, I was still excited to see how Cleveland faired with young Canadian big-man Tristan Thompson and first overall pick Kyrie Irving as their future core.
6. The biggest thing I’ll miss is the personality of the players. The massive collective egos of the Heat …. the cool, confident cockiness of Kobe Bryant …. the intensity of  a Kevin Garnett or a Joakim Noah. These are things other sports just don’t possess  - the larger-than-life characters. Football is too much of a meticulous, Xs and Os sport, and hockey players will never want that much attention on them.