Early in the traditional season, the NBA...

will not be missed. Later on in winter though? We'll miss the sport, all right. If they're all dumb enough to let it go that long...

Here's Ethan J. Skolnick, writing in the Palm Beach Post sports section:

The mood was dour, and the situation dire, at least for anyone still hoping for a full NBA season.

After two days of intense negotiations in New York, the two sides failed to resolve enough of their differences to even agree to a date for another meeting, let alone to end the lockout that began July 1.

For that matter, they couldn't even agree Tuesday on what exactly was discussed.

The owners claimed that in addition to dropping their demand for a hard salary cap, they proposed a 50-50 split of basketball revenues (the players used to get 57 percent; the owners initially offered 46 percent).

The players denied that they were offered an even split.

"We were not able to make the progress we hoped we would make," said Commissioner David Stern, representing the owners.

There's no denying the calendar.

Thus, Stern officially canceled the rest of the pre-season, and indicated that if no deal is struck by Monday, the first two weeks of the regular season would be canceled as well.