No surprise here. After NBA labor talks hit a major roadblock last week and made no reported progress this week, the league will announce today the postponement of the first two weeks of training camps and preseason games, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
{Update 09/23/11 11:00AM PDT: One week of preseason games (October 9-15), a total of 43 games, were cancelled and training camps are postponed "indefinitely", as per The New York Times.}
This doesn't necessarily mean that the regular season, scheduled to start on November 1, won't begin on time but commissioner David Stern assumed the role of Mr. Obvious by saying, "the calendar is not our friend."
While the official word (read: the posturing of Stern and NBPA President Derek Fisher) is all doom and gloom and that the sides are still far from a settlement, there are rumblings that there is progress being made under the surface and out of the limelight. ESPN's Ric Bucher tweeted last night that:
@RicBucher: For all the gloom the postponement of training camp inspired, amazing no. of NBA industry peeps are convinced a full season will happen.
Clippers center and all-around unique human being Chris Kaman chipped in with this:
@ChrisKaman: So I heard from the inside that we might actually have a full season still and some low key meetings r going on right now!
What to believe? It's hard to know right now, and probably best to take both the "sky is falling" posturing (never mind that the sky actually is falling) and the unsupported optimism with a grain of salt. The deadline for settlement that was just missed is a minor one. No reason for panic. In negotiations like this, things don't get done until the absolute last minute, and we're not there yet.