So, news has come that the NBA lockout is over. I suppose we’re duty-bound to be jumping around the room in glee and excitement?

Should I be apologising that I’m not?

The fact is, as I mentioned here, the lockout was yet another impetus to lead me to question if basketball should play such an overriding presence in my life. The conclusion was: there are a stack of other things which we all could be spending our time on, rather than obsessing over a bunch of sports stars and their labour disputes.

Please don’t take this as a dark, cynical, woe-is-me attitude. It’s not. I still love the game. I just don’t enjoy some of the aspects that surround the game.

Hey, I still enjoy many of those aspects that surround the game too. Things like this are cool to hear. I’m just taking this moment to dedicate more of my time to other things and to not be too one-dimensional.

23-asterix-with-swordWill it be great to have the NBA back on our screens? Definitely. Am I over-joyed, skipping down the street that this season is back? Not really. Can we even call it a season?

Being a shortened season, much like the last post-lockout season we witnessed, it will have a great big asterisk next to it in the record books.

I guess it will feel a bit more like an entree to the 2012/13 season, when things turn entirely back to normal… and then we wait for six years time when both parties have the right to dissolve the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement once again. Will lessons be learnt from this year’s experience, or will we see another lockout?

The Next Media Animation guys in Taiwan have once again taken a light-hearted look at the lockout resolution, with one of their animated videos. Some of the likenesses are pretty horific, but some are spot on. Either way, it’s a fun look at things.