The lockout hasn't officially begun yet, but we are already seeing signs of the NBA omitting current players from being shown on league-wide campaigns.
The NBA Public Service Announcement for the "Dribble to Stop Diabetes" campaign has been shown often during NBA games. You probably know that it's Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard asking us, "Do you know that during this 20 second timeout, that someone will be diagnosed with diabetes?" That is no more. The NBA released a new version of the PSA today, omitting Howard completely with Alana Beard from our Washington Mystics delivering the opening lines.
This is clearly not a WNBA PSA for the same campaign, because you still see NBA legends Walt Frazier and 16 year NBA vet Chris Dudley. Who knows if this is merely posturing by the NBA or they really are serious about the lockout and possibly trying to block out the players in the process. Either way, this is one sign that the NBA is serious with this lockout.
