Oh my god this would be so awesome

If you're like everybody else in the world, including myself, you aren't paying a whole ton of attention to the whole NBA labor deal.  It's basically a mess where the owners are trying to screw the players, the players can't get out of their own way, and half the owners don't even want to get a deal done because they'd rather not have a season this year.  Plus, with the NBA ranking behind college hoops, baseball, the NFL, and maybe even golf in my sports watching hierarchy I haven't really missed it yet, even if I like tossing it on the tv from time to time.  I've basically just kind of half-assed followed this whole deal by paying attention to headlines and reading things here or there, but a couple of things happened today that really made me perk up.

First, the players rejected the latest offer from the owners which was supposedly an ultimatum of sorts from the owner/league side.  It sounds like the owners won't move to more than a 50/50 split and are continually writing things in that the players don't like and the players are the only ones making any concessions here, so they're frustrated.  It sounds like they will move to attempt to call for a vote to decertify the union and then file an antitrust suit against the NBA - similar to what the NFL players did.

Now, what makes this more interesting this time is that according to David Stern if there is no union then the contracts signed between players and teams are invalid because those contracts are entered into with the understanding that there is a players union (I don't know if this is writing or how clearly it's spelled out).  Stern and the owners plan is to take it to a judge and hope he rules the contracts are invalid.  So what means that?

It means every player is suddenly a free agent.  Which can go one of two ways IF that happens and IF the contracts don't somehow get reinstated and IF the NBA ever reforms.  The first is that it's just an outright bidding frenzy where players can sign with whomever which would lead to superteams forming in Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the other big, attractive markets and kill basketball in Minnesota, Milwaukee, Toronto, Indiana, etc. (well, more than it already has) and would really just destroy the NBA in general.  The other, far more attractive option, would be a full league dispersal draft.

What?  Yes.  You know how when you buy any sports video game you might have a season/dynasty with your favorite team but if there's a draft option you will also have a draft and inevitably you end up enjoying the drafted season and your other one just kind of goes by the wayside?  Yeah, like that.  But it could be for real.

I know, you're all, "dude yeah right" and you're probably right.  There is an awful lot that would have to happen, and happen in those specific ways, to get to this point, but make no mistake it is an ACTUAL possibility at this point.  This would simply be the greatest thing that's ever happened in the history of all sports ever.  Keep your fingers crossed folks.  It could really happen.


OTHER NOTES FROM LAST NIGHT:

-  Gophers beat South Dakota State 71-55 in another game where they struggled early and were behind in the middle of the second half before closing the game out with a big run.  Eventually that's going to catch up to them, but for now they're 2-0 and both wins are over teams that have legit chances to reach the NCAA Tournament.  I'd write more, but for some reason Old Man sold our tickets to some jackass Snacks works with and the stupid thing wasn't on TV.  And no, I'm not paying $9.99 for a month to see this garbage.  I do, however, have the replay on BTN set to Tivo, so I'll have more info on this later in the week.  For now, I just want to point out this sequence from the play-by-play:

9:04		48-52	Chip Armelin Block.
9:01		48-52	Chip Armelin Defensive Rebound.
9:01		48-54	Andre Hollins made Layup. Assisted by Chip Armelin.

But this one might even be better:

0:28		28-28	Chip Armelin Steal.
0:24		28-30	Chip Armelin made Layup.
0:14	Nate Wolters Turnover.	28-30
0:14		28-30	Chip Armelin Steal.
0:12		28-32	Chip Armelin made Layup.

I love that guy. 

-  Purdue almost had the first embarrassing loss for the Big 10 this season, beating High Point by a mere two points tonight and the only reason they won is Ryne Smith hit 8 three-pointers.  Yikes.  High Point wouldn't just be a bad loss, it'd be disastrous. 

- ESPN is doing there 24-hour college basketball kick-off marathon tonight/tomorrow.  I wish they had done this several years ago when I would have gone ahead and watched the whole thing, including skipping classes because hey, any excuse to not go to class, am i right?  As it is now, I'm just looking forward to checking out that nifty Drexel vs. Rider game and/or Morehead St vs. Charleston when I have to get up with my stupid kid in the morning.  I guess day hoops at work is pretty sweet though. 

-  I'm currently reading this book, because I rather enjoy the kind of book that blends science and history and turns it into an entertaining blend of action/mystery.  Similar to Dan Brown's books, although I consider Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, and James Rollins to be far superior to Brown, even if I still think Angels & Demons was one of the best in this genre.  Anyway, there are three books that suck more than anything else I've ever read:  Meg by Steve Alten (he ends up getting swallowed by a Meglodon and then swimming around in it's body for christ's sake), Hannibal Rising (a clear cash grab where you could tell the author was putting words to paper simply for the check), and some book about the Loch Ness monster that I don't remember that was just a complete mess.  Well I hate to say it, but this baby might be the fourth on my list.  It's just so, so dull and boring.  I've had to page back a couple of times to try to figure out who certain characters are because none of them are remotely memorable.  Just terrible.

-  Clay Matthews is the top and A.J. Hawk is the bottom, right?

-  Eventually I'll write something about the Twins signing Jayme Carroll, I promise.

-  Finally, watch this:



Oh hell yes.