• As Wizards fans, we represent a small but fierce cross-section of NBA fandom. Solidarity is important when our team comes to town, so this one is for Wizards fans living in NBA cities not within driving distance of DC. If you're planning to see the John Wall and Co. when they come to town, let us know about it. If we can get small groups together in the lower decks to cheer the team out of the tunnel, that would be awesome. I have a fond memory of Nick Young's amazed smile last year at seeing a fan wearing Wizards teal (R.I.P.) On that note, if there is no game in Phoenix this year, I will literally die.
• Old news, but the Nene Hilario max contract rumors immediately confirmed there is no system the NBA can devise that will protect the owners from their own stupidity.
• Remember when I wondered (along with everyone else) if the Carmelo Anthony trade meant bad things for parity? ...Yup.

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With the announcement that we may finally have an NBA season starting Christmas day - I can start thinking about important stuff again. Instead of wasting my time twitching over twitter feeds at 2am, posting about BRI and "system issues", or watching every available snippet of video with John Wall playing in meaningless pick up games - I can actually start to look forward to NBA basketball.

The Wizards have an intriguing team this year - and I'll be posting my "Five things I'm looking forward to.... Wizards edition" soon - - - but looking at the bigger picture, there are some compelling plot lines and entertaining stories to watch coming out of the League this year.

There are lots of things I'm dying to find out. Will someone finally get tired of his smack talk, and smack Kevin Garnett upside his head? Which GM will be crazy enough to pick up Gilbert Arenas when Orlando uses the amnesty clause on him? Will there be any fan backlash, specifically at Phoenix (Sarver), Cleveland (Gilbert) or Charlotte (Michael Jordan) over the lock out? Can Blake Griffin repeat as slam dunk champion by jumping over the front hood of a Smart Car?

After the jump - the top 5 things I'm looking forward to

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The basketball gods have been gentler with the Wizards over these past few years. A combination of Thanksgiving, well-earned food comas and a lockout-induced scarcity of topics means we'll be rattling off some of the things we're grateful for. Think a little outside the box. We're all grateful for John Wall, but are we grateful enough for him crashing the Kentucky Derby in this suit?

Mike loves Von Wafer .gifs, Sean loves hearing the Inception sound effect when Andray starts shooting 18 foot contested jump shots et cetera. Comment about the things both Wizards and NBA-related that you uniquely enjoy, mine after the jump.

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• Now is the winter of our discontent. Bright Side of the Sun's Seth Pollack recently posted on the correlation between spending and winning. (thanks for FanShotting, Dutch!)

  The owners insist that they need to level the playing field between all 30 teams so the big markets teams (or those with deep pockets) can't continually outspend the rest of the league. They believe that more equal spending will give more teams the chance to be competitive.

  The history is clearly on the owners side.

  Read the article. There is a massive difference between correlation and causation, where's the analysis of that crucial difference?

• Band of brothers?. Pollack also suggests that once the players agreed to a 50/50 BRI split the battle with the owners was over. After all, with the proposed system changes impacting only a limited demographic of veterans, what in politics we might call a 'special interest', hasn't that special interest hijacked the season? Well...

• Just because you figured out the horse doesn't mean the cart stands alone. Does that seem a little obscure? As Henry Abbott pointed out eloquently:

  There may be a certain tolerance out there for an NBA season lost to fixing a broken financial model. Everybody at least understands the idea that the league needs to be on solid financial footing. But with the money issues solved, it's unfathomable that we might lose a season chasing the unicorn of competitive balance.

  That certainly sounds like it embodies the heart of Pollack's sentiment. But does it support his claim?

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Club violence with professional athletes either involved or on the periphery has become a media trope as common as celebrity divorce. Personally, impassioned commentary about what a responsible athlete should or should not do has become equally passe. In the end, those attitudes do more to reflect the speakers' personal prejudices than some objective standard which they offer as 'the more sensible path.'

And it's not that they're wrong; not going to the club in order to avoid potentially charged situations is more sensible. But professional athletes are men and women who get where they are by honing elite physical talent with the kind of drive and discipline any sensible person admires. Most people blow off steam by hanging out with friends, maybe they go out with friends.

The issue most sensible (and voluble, on this subject) spectators don't have to deal with, is what do you do when you make it? When loose cash goes from fifty bucks for dinner and a movie to a stack of hundreds you'll never miss? How do you spend a grand in a gas station?

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I can't think of union decertification without thinking of a passage from Sun Tzu's iconic text:

Maneuvering with an army is advantageous;

with an undisciplined multitude, most dangerous.

Sun Tzu via China Page

And it's particularly difficult to see how the courts would allow it when the NFL set the legal precedent on the basis of 'if it still walks, talks, and acts like a union...' Yet if this desperate gambit comes to fruition, the only other phrase that comes to mind is 'incredible mess.' But I'm here to view David Stern's leadership through the philosophical lens:

When you surround an army, leave an outlet free.

Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

Sun Tzu via China Page

A desperate man is to be feared. He has no hope and therefore nothing to lose. The NBPA is comprised of millionaires who have plenty to lose, but have been treated as anything but equals by a symbiotic partner who enjoy what is essentially a tactical invincibility which is not strategically insurmountable. This is utter foolishness. You don't step on the people you break bread with, even and especially a nine billion dollar loaf.

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Here's a weekend edition of Bullet Points to help get you through your days off. Feel free to use it as an off-topic thread while we wait to find out if there will be a season. Come on, Schwartz...

It's an illusion! November 9th, the players are willing to accept a 50-50 BRI split in exchange for some help on systems issues. Hallelujah! Buuuut on October 20th, they were refusing to come down to a 50-50 BRI split without full resolution on system issues. Of course, it was Dan Gilbert telling the NBPA 'Trust me'. Three weeks of lockout negotiations to end up exactly where we were three weeks ago? I know there has been movement on some of those system issues...but if you had told me that Dan Gilbert would have the last laugh, I would have expected you to say it in Comic Sans.

You tell me you're a super-mega-ultra lightning babe? That's all right with me. I'm good...I'm good. Lockout burnout strikes the hardcore masses and it's getting harder and harder to attach any significance to the updates out of New York. 'No, now we're really, really serious and there's a chance we could possibly-cancel-the-whole-season-or-maybe-have-75-games-we'll-see.' Fans are approaching the point where they're ready to say 'call me when it's over.'

Suspense is worse than disappointment. Thank baby Jeebus for the fake season. My actual baby has been sick (fever blisters...nerve-wracking) so I've been off the grid for a while...but knowing that games are not not (not) happening is an odd source of comfort. Peanut butter and pickle sandwiches for the NBA fan's soul.

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I was watching Sports Center Wednesday afternoon (not willingly, it's always on in the breakroom), while we were waiting for news from the (seemingly) last negotiation to save the season. There was a little graphic in the corner of the screen declaring we were in the 130th-odd day of the lockout and it took me aback. It's hard to believe more than a third of an entire year has gone by with a half year just around the corner.

The NBA lockout is about to end, go the distance, or engage in one last round of white-knuckle negotiations. It's difficult to decide how to feel about all this, mostly because both sides have taken pains to obfustucate what's actively being negotiated on a day-to-day basis while spoon-feeding the media (and the fans, by extension) their own carefully scripted accounts.

Sure, we can expect this sort of internecine, faux-Machiavellian maneuvering with this much money at stake in the entertainment industry, but it doesn't make it any easier for the sincere fan to swallow.

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