UPDATE: So the Las Vegas summer league still has life after all. While the New York Daily News reported this morning that the NBA had cancelled the league in anticipation of a July 1 lockout, league officials have denied any such action has taken place:
“No decision has been made on summer leagues,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank told ESPN.com on Wednesday. He declined to discuss the league’s timetable for making a decision.
It’s possible the lockout will indeed eventually cause the summer league to shut down this summer. But the NBA says it hasn’t happened at this time.
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ORIGINAL REPORT: As we steamroll towards what promises to be an incredible NBA Playoffs, a stark reminder that we may not even have a season next year greeted us this morning when we turned on our computers. In a foreboding sign that an NBA lockout appears to be an inevitable reality, it is being reported that the NBA has canceled its annual summer league in Las Vegas.
So what does this mean?
In preparation for the potential loss of a season, the league is cutting back on expenses. Along with the summer league, it is also being reported that the NBA is cutting out various programs and will not be sending any teams abroad for training camp or exhibition games as they have done for the last several years.
For us, we think we can live without the European tours, but the summer games? That’s a killer. We LOVE the games from Vegas, they help us get through a long summer of no NBA hoops. Vegas usually starts in July, a short time after the NBA Draft, and it’s a prime opportunity to watch rookies do their thing in an NBA-like setting.
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