NBA labor talks break off, union disbands

With the exception of things like child sexual abuse scandals, there is nothing I find less enjoyable to write about in sports than labor disputes.

There are a few reasons I have yet to even address the NBA lockout until today. One is that I'm even less qualified to break down the ins and outs of a collective barganing agreement than I am to opine about actual sporting events. Another is that it's so silly to side with either billionaire owners or millionaire owners in disputes that only leave beer vendors and ushers in serious personal financial jeopardy. I figured I'd ride the NBA lockout out until the players finally caved, and then start writing about basketball occasionally again.

Well, the players didn't cave. Twitter exploded over an hour ago with news that the players had rejected the owners' latest, supposedly take-it-or-leave-it offer. Instead, according to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojarnowski, the players plan to dissolve their union and file an antitrust suit against the NBA. Not only are the league's hopes of starting the season about a month from now almost definitely out the window, as are its hopes of having its usual Christmas Day blockbuster of games, the chances of there being any kind of a 2011-12 season suddenly seem slim. Even commissioner David Stern said as much.

I don't care who's right and who's wrong (I've been slightly more on the side of the players, but they've hardly scored any favor with me during this process). What really bugs me is that the NBA was coming off one of its greatest postseasons, it's filled with as many superstars as it's perhaps ever had and it has a team (the Heat) that is a source of tremendous intrigue, even if it's mostly negative, for die-hard basketball fans and casual sports fans alike. I've never been as big an NBA fan as am the other major sports, but I was definitely looking forward to this season. And these idiots went and screwed it all up.