From the department of redundancy department, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports brings us the news that the NBA informed teams this afternoon that games through Dec. 15 have officially been canceled.
Yes, seriously.
After the disastrous events of Monday -- you know, where the union for the players decided they’d rather choose decertification and what will likely be a lengthy battle in the courts over continuing the collective bargaining process with an ownership group that refused to budge further after already receiving a mountain of concessions -- the need to notify teams of the cancellation of more games didn’t exactly seem to be there.
Commissioner David Stern has said on multiple occasions that the league will need at least 30 days from the time an agreement is reached to start a season, and he said Monday after the union’s decision that the NBA is entering its “nuclear winter.” No one thought that games on or before Dec. 15 were anywhere close to being played, and no one was looking at the schedule saying, “Well, maybe, if ...”
The announcement to teams was pointless; it was already known that no games would be played in the next 30 days, or likely, at any time in the foreseeable future. No word yet if the NBA is also planning to inform teams of the color of the sky or the dampness of water, but if and when they do, we’ll be sure to pass it along.