It's Official - The NBA Owners Lock Out The Players

It was reported first by Ken Berger of CBS Sports:

BREAKING: Owners have informed players they are locking out. #NBA #lockout

So much for any last-minute miracles. It will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT tomorrow morning. Of course this means that the teams and their employees will have no contact with any of the NBA players until the labor dispute is resolved.

A lockout is one of the biggest methods of leverage that the league and its owners can deploy in order to force concessions from the NBAPA.

A lockout was nearly inevitable and has been predicted to happen for a couple of years. So now that it's upon us, the most frustrating part is that we as fans can do nothing about it. Teams and players already know what damage this can do to the game. For the most part, the owners, the initiators of this work stoppage, are willing to lose an entire season in order to get what they want. They have the upper-hand in all of this right now. Players may be better prepared than they were in 1998, but I'm guessing billions last longer than millions. Owners are going to get major concessions.

Game on.

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