How the lockout affects the NBA fan: An editorial

Shaq is a lot taller than Earl Boykins and I miss him already.

This isn't so much as how it affects every NBA fan, but maybe more so how it affects me. I'm a fairly young man and so when I started watching the NBA, certain things and players became commonplace. It's interesting to me to see an era of basketball slowly closing. For me, it started with the retiring of Shaquille O'Neal.

For as long as I can remember, "The Diesel," "Shaq Fu," "The Big Aristotle," "Superman," or whatever you want to call him has been moving up and down the floor, being one of the most dominant big men in the history of the game. He was certainly the most dominant of his era. It struck me as he clowned his way through his retirement ceremony that a lot of my sports icons were sure to be following in his path.

It made me a little sad realizing that iconic players who have been capturing my imagination like Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan are getting older and won't be playing much longer. It truly is as I mentioned before the end of an era. These athletes will go down into the annals of time and many of them will be discussed as some of the greatest to ever do what they do, and even though they've battled the odds, each other and even gravity they can't battle time, at least not forever.

That's why to me and fans like me, this lock out is turning into one of the largest injustices to sports fans that I can remember in quite some time. As I write this, owners and players still have not met on an agreement which means, according to Commissioner David Stern; games are going to be cancelled. With the entire season in jeopardy it makes it a possibility that the fans won't get to see these tremendous athletes play at all this year, a year that could push many players past their abilities and won't be the players we remembered them being the last time they picked up a basketball.

The effects of this are far reaching, especially with current champion the Dallas Mavericks. Jason Kidd was the heart, soul and behind Dirk Nowitzki the leader of the team. Well, if the season starts the way it's supposed to the Mavericks come back looking to repeat with largely the same squad with which they won the title. After another year though? A year without game speed competition, but most importantly another year. Do I personally think that Kidd can come back and play like he did in the playoffs after missing an entire year of basketball? Not really, but I've been wrong before. I was wrong about the Dallas team that won it all.

So maybe I'm wrong about this. Maybe a year off, a year of rest letting Garnett and Duncan rest their knees could help them in the long run to extend their already sparkling careers. It could be just what the doctor ordered to keep these players in the league. Yet, the inverse is also possible. Maybe apathy sets in and they get out of shape. We certainly see it with Baron Davis every year. These players return as a shell of their former selves and realize that they have to hang it up sooner than they thought. This is all pure speculation of course. There are few athletes with the competitive drive that Kevin Garnett displays, but you have to wonder as he approaches the twilight of his career if his window is closing.

I don't know. Maybe a new era in the NBA would be a good thing. Once the old guard is retired, young promising stars like Kevin Love, John Wall, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin and Brandon Jennings will get their day in the sun. Maybe it's for the best. All I know is I want basketball.