There has finally been an agreement between the players and the owners of the NBA and we will thankfully have a season this year.
This lockout took away from a good chunk of the season and has narrowed the season down to 66 games and lost the league millions of dollars.
One positive is the season opener, a triple header on Christmas day that will surely draw in some ratings.
Starting with the Celtics and Knicks around noon, the Heat and Mavericks at 2:30, and the Bulls and Lakers at 5.
Some people are worried that the NBA has taken too big of a hit in popularity to recover from the lockout, but once the games are started back up again people will be tuning back in.
Keep in mind what happened with the NFL. There were so many fears of no season and what would happen without football? And then there was a deal, and what happened? Everything was back to normal, the fans came back to the stadiums and the high ratings were still coming in. Once the season is back underway the lockout will be a small thought from the past.
Fans will forget — if they haven’t forgotten already — and will be back screaming and cheering for their teams.
Now I understand that the NBA’s lockout was a little worse than the NFL’s, but I sincerely believe that everything will be back to normal.
People will go back to cheering for their favorite team and cheering against the Heat — nothing will be different.
But it will be interesting to see what happens as far as players moving teams.
Although there are some good free agents this year, it is nothing compared to last season’s free agent pool. You know, Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, etc.
But there are still some very interesting headlines for this off season, which is a very short time for offseason moves.
The biggest one might be where will Chris Paul play? So many rumors are coming out that he will be traded to the Knicks to make a second “big 3.”
This “big 3” would consist of Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. Now, would New York’s “big 3” be able to surpass the crew down in Miami?
Well Paul needs to be dealt to the Knicks before we can begin speculating, but a lot of people like the Knicks’ odds if they get Paul.
Another big time question is where will Dwight Howard play? Will he be back in Orlando? Might he be sent off to the Lakers?
A lot of questions should begin to be answered between now and Christmas, or at least let’s hope.
Don’t be surprised to see Howard wearing some purple and gold. I see a Bryant-Howard duo very possible.
But will the Magic be willing to let him go? Does he even want to be in Orlando anymore? Only time will tell what will happen with all these questions.
But one thing is for sure, we will have an NBA season.
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. You can e-mail comments about this column to tyrollason@yahoo.com.
