It’s becoming more and more likely that we’ll experience a shortened NBA season, if we have one at all. With the NBA preseason already nixed, regular season games are already on the chopping block if the owners and the players cannot come to an agreement by Monday. Commissioner David Stern made the announcement after another round of talks yielded little in terms of results. Struggling to find a middle ground on basketball-related income—the players were at 57% last season and the owner want to drop their earnings by ten percent to 47%—the outlook on a 2011-12 season is looking mighty bleak. Don’t fret though, we have a few remedies to help you get through this rough time should there be no NBA season this year.

1) Buy NBA 2K12 and play a season with all of the legendary teams.

NBA 2K12 has arguably upended Madden as the most epic sports game known to man. After implementing the Michael Jordan challenges last season, 2K Sports decided to up the ante by including classic players ranging from Dr. J and Oscar Robertson to Larry Bird and Hakeem Olajuwon. That decision couldn’t come at a better time since the lockout prevents the game from having the new rookie class or feature updated rosters since there has been no movement since the end of the 2011 season. So you might as well unlock all of the classic teams in the game, start a season and stick the “Bad Boy” Pistons and the “Showtime” Lakers in the game and see how they fare.

2) Watch more hockey.

If anybody stands to benefit from the NBA lockout more than anyone else, its most certainly the NHL. Quiet as kept, the National Hockey League had quite the entertaining 2011 season and playoffs. With the NBA acting a fool, the NHL can steal away new fans who just have to watch some kind of sporting activity every single day of their lives. It helps that this season is shaping up to be one of the more competitive in recent memory.

3) There’s always college basketball.

No, it’s not the same as it used to be, but basketball is basketball. While many avoid the NCAA like the plague until right before March Madness, there’s no better time to get a good look at the upcoming draft class than now. You won’t have anything else to do during the week, and ESPN will be sifting through college basketball highlights like there’s no tomorrow once baseball wraps up and we’re left to the NFL only entertaining us on Sunday. We’ve gotta get our basketball fix somehow.

Bookmark to: