NBA Lockout: Is the 2011 Season No More Than a Hoops Dream?

Wednesday night around 9:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time was about as close to the pinnacle of fandom as it gets around this sports-centric household. In a frenzied span of 180 seconds, we got to see the spoiler Baltimore Orioles eliminate the Boston Red Sox from MLB Playoff contention, the Tampa Bay Rays come from 7-0 down to defeat the New York Yankees (and seal the Red Sox fate), and watch the premiere of Sportfolio, Rick’s new weekly half-hour sports business program on Bloomberg TV.

Both the baseball and the talk show are getting favorable reviews this morning. The NBA lockout, which enters its 92 day on Friday, not so much. NBA Commissioner David Stern is using increasingly dire language to describe the scenario for the 2011-12 NBA season, insinuating that regular-season games will be in jeopardy if no deal is in place by the first week of October and that planned labor talks Friday in New York that will likely continue into the weekend represent “enormous consequences at play” as the two sides try to preserve an on-time season opener.