Nuclear Winter?

The end of talks between the NBA basketball players and the league owners has been called a “nuclear winter” by the league commissioner David Stern.

Wow!  I had no idea that the possibility of missing a season of professional basketball was so important to life as we know it.  Nuclear Winter is a term coined to describe what life would be like after a large nuclear war.  It is assumed to be very cold and dark with most life-forms devastated.

While clearly hyperbole, Commissioner Stern’s description of a year without professional basketball seems  extraordinarily extreme. Does the end of the NBA basketball season really equate to the end of the world?  The only thing that has happened is that the players union has turned down (multiple times) the league’s offer. The union is disbanding and going to court.  While this may have real consequences for both the players and the owners, how much does it really affect us? No more professional basketball games on television is one way we will be affected.  On the other hand, baseball fans will probably like the fact that the lengthy NBA basketball playoffs won’t run into the start of their season. 

I actually like basketball but, in y opinion, the really exciting basketball games are the college games.  We will all still be able to watch these games with all the spirit the opposing teams and their students and alumni bring to the games.  And, of course, in mid-March we can look forward to the excitement of March Madness – the best 64 college basketball teams competing for an invitation to the Big Dance – i.e. the Road to the Final Four.

What else will we do if we can’t watch professional basketball?  I am sure we will find plenty of alternatives – sports or otherwise.  It is the players and owners who should ask themselves that question.  We will get along all right.  But “nuclear winter”?  – I don’t think so.