In just the last couple of weeks, the sports world has been hit by storm. Most recently, Coach K is the all time winningest college coach, we tragically lost two Oklahoma State coaches, Jesus is now openly a Broncos fan, child sex abuse has stigmatized two big time college programs meaning Sandusky and Fine are no longer two overlooked coaches.

What strikes me where it hurts most is the declaiming of the NBA players union, and David Stern’s cancellation of all games though December 15th as a result. The players agreed to a 50-50 revenue split but the owners denied them the additional clauses they asked for prior to declaiming and apparently the owners were even reluctant to offer THAT. The declaimimg of the union means that the players are going to try to win this battle through the legal system. Unfortunately, I have to side with David Stern when he said that declaiming was a big mistake. The NFL union tried the same tactic and they ended up losing their lawsuit so I dont see the strategy behind this decision.

With games canceled through December 15th, having half of a season seems pretty optimistic. With the players looking for a little more than what Stern called the league’s “best offer”, I feel that, as fans, we need to look for new outlets to occupy all the time we would’ve spent watching the NBA.

The NFL has been somewhat doing the trick. It’s great and all, but with only one game a week for each team, playoffs that end right when february hits, and only about 10 minutes of actual football in each game, it’s just not going to cut it. I would say we should watch some real football, a.k.a. soccer, but for some reason, the world’s most beautiful sport isn’t very popular anywhere in the U.S.A. except for Seattle and their beloved Sounders a.k.a. not the Sonics

Next on our, “to watch” list, comes the sport we love but in a more educational form known as, college basketball. College ball is the closest we’ll get to the real thing. It’s like store-brand cereal, it tastes almost identical, but in the end you miss the box characters u know and love and all the extra sugar added in March seems to make up for it.

Some of you might not be aware that the NBA has a little brother who goes by the name, NHL. The NHL starts and ends right around the same time as the NBA. Its baffled me the last few years why the NHL has not chosen to schedule their playoffs around the NBA so I would actually watch a game 7 of hockey and not have to choose the obvious choice. Now since the likelyhood of anything NBA is slim, the Kings will probably be on FSN instead of a Prime Ticket replay spot. In all honesty, I’ve been to a few hockey games and I really do enjoy the game. It has the fluidity of basketball, the suspense of soccer, and the violence of football. It doesn’t lack in high marketable names either with it’s two superstars in Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.

As NBA fans, we all lose, but the rest of America’s sports definitely win in it’s absence, especially hockey. I’m officially a temporary fan of the NHL and they could possibly win me over in the future as long as they fix their broken playoff schedule.