Nuclear Winter

In honor (dishonor) of the NBA lockout I have decided to start a blog to replace the time I would normally spend on watching, attending, reading about, and listening to pro basketball games. I'm going to try and cover a wide range of topics while questioning what we would have expected to see in the NBA on that current day. I hope you all enjoy it and I'd love to hear your feedback. Without further adu, lets do it up!

November 14th, 2011
OKC @ Charlotte, Sacramento @ Memphis, Golden State @ Dallas, New York @ Utah, and Philly @ Portland.

5 games on the Monday slate, and while no real marquee matchups, there still are some interesting story lines to look forward to. Kevin Durant has officially turned into 'Must See TV' and after a full training camp, how is the young nucleus in OKC looking after adding Kendrick Perkins from Boston? Can Memphis repeat its playoff run of a year ago? Is Dallas still rolling after their championship run? Also, has Mark Cuban stopped grinning from his ring ceremony? How are Carmelo and Amare looking together? What is Brandon Roy going to look like this year? These are things we should be talking and reading about, but alas we are not...

The big news today is obviously the NBA Players Association rejecting the owner's latest proposal and promptly doing the Dikembe Mutombo finger wave as they left the negotiating session. David Stern (the NBA Commissioner for those of you living under a rock) has since gone on Sports Center to plead the case of the owners and putting the blame on Billy Hunter (the head of the NBPA). An already ugly "business" deal had already gone south so why not make it personal, right?

After the rejection, the players are now planning on filing an anti-trust case against the NBA effectively ending the 2011-2012 Season by taking basketball to a different court. As well all know our legal system likes to act swiftly and is completely understanding of our own time constraints... If we are lucky this will only take months and not years.

It was also a busy day outside the arena of basketball. The Green Bay Packers continued their dominance on the rest of the NFL, and I actually had flashbacks of John Madden giving ridiculous amounts of praise to Brett Favre hearing all the great/amazing/unbelievable things that Aaron Rodgers can do by the current Monday Night Football crew. Rex Ryan, allegedly (he totally did), got caught cursing out a fan. And, in case you haven't heard, Tim Tebow is still a winner! For the first time since 1947 a team won in which its quarterback had more rushing attempts than passing attempts. There may or may not have been winds up to 40 mph that day in 1947, but I don't know for sure since I wasn't born yet...

Jerry Sandusky, on top of making other great decisions, decided to go on national television with Bob Costas and give his first public interview since he has been charged with over 40 counts of sexual assault for his role in the widely covered Penn State scandal. Joe Paterno's name has also been removed from the Big 10 Championship Trophy, further tarnishing his legacy. To add another crazy wrinkle in this mess, it has been reported that Sandusky's attorney impregnated a teenage girl over a decade ago (legal, but gross he was 49). Here is a link to a New York Post article http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/sandusky_lawyer_impregnated_teenage_7jKwQMCeBlm9RSdr9zeutK
A lot has been said and I'm going to leave it at that for now with Penn State until more disgusting information surfaces later on (it will).

I've been trying to decide all day if I'm more angry or sad about the NBA situation and I think I'm leaning towards angry. Hell, I never would have considered starting a blog before, but here we are... Passports have been updated and get ready for an exodus of sorts to Europe and other countries that aren't in Europe or the US. There will be no basketball in the foreseeable future, but as the commercials say "basketball never sleeps" so they gotta find somewhere to play.

Until Next Time,

Dan