Your top story today:
"Owners, players save NBA season; Celtics to start on Christmas" by Gary Washburn Globe Staff / November 27, 2011
You mean it is not NATO's declaration of war against Pakistan?
A 149-day labor ordeal that stymied the National Basketball Association and forced the cancellation of hundreds of games, including 24 Celtics’ contests, finally ended early yesterday morning when the league’s owners and players tentatively agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement, saving the 2011-12 season.
A 15-hour negotiating session in a Manhattan hotel produced a long-awaited deal and saved face in what had been an embarrassing situation for the NBA. The Celtics would return to action Christmas Day with a road game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, playing an abbreviated 66-game schedule that will extend into late April.
The shortened schedule gives an aging Celtics franchise led by Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett - who are in the last year of their contracts - and Paul Pierce perhaps one final shot of getting a second NBA title in four years....
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Related: Who Misses the NBA?
"Not all NBA fans are feeling forgiving" by Akilah Johnson, Martine Powers and Miriam Valverde Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent / November 27, 2011
Not everyone was cheering basketball season’s apparent resurrection yesterday.
Fans and workers in businesses dependent on the Celtics playing inside TD Garden were bitter after months of watching multimillionaires bicker over money. Yesterday’s news of a break in the lockout did not engender feelings of forgiveness.
“To tell you the truth, I kind of just want them to cancel the season,’’ said Adam Kelberman of Newton, who was out with his family near the Garden early yesterday afternoon. “At this point, it’s a waste.’’
I admit I was looking forward to that.
Kelberman, a self-described sports nut who sided with NBA owners in the protracted contract dispute, said he had little interest in watching a truncated season....
Most Americans did because it is corporate media that brings you the sports.
While the streets of Greater Boston were filled with vitriol, sports radio’s air waves waxed more positive, buzzing with gratitude that training camp is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks. Some callers were even excited about the shorter season, saying it could benefit the veteran team with seasoned players.
“I’m just so, so, so, so happy that the lockout is over,’’ said Hector from Providence on 98.5 the Sports Hub’s Johnston and Flinn Show. “I’m so happy that Celtics basketball is returning.’’
On the basketball courts of Joe Moakley Park in South Boston, 13-year-old Nelson Torres said he had missed watching his favorite players, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, and tried to distract himself from the lockout by tuning in to Patriots games. But football just isn’t the same, he said.
And he had not liked seeing money get in the way of the game.
Still, he’s a loyal fan.
“I know they’re going to beat the Knicks this year,’’ Torres said. “They’ve still got it.’’
The lockout changed the way 16-year-old Dionte Coplin thinks about professional sports, he said. “The whole thing was so stupid,’’ said Coplin on the courts at Moakley yesterday. “They were just being greedy.’’
The Celtics are the only Boston sports team he watches. Without them, he said, he spent most of his time playing video games.
And while he is still angry at the players, he can’t wait for that first Christmas matchup.
“I’ll get over it,’’ Coplin said. “They’re my favorite team.’’
Really a crack set of investigative reporters down there at the Globe, huh?
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