Tentative Deal Doesn’t Mean NBA Season Will Start

What is the definition of tentative?

Tentative is an adjective describing the deal between two parties. For example, the NBA owners and players have reached a tentative deal to end the lockout. It means there isn't a certain or fixed deal in place.

* KWCH 12 -- "NBA players, owners reach tentative agreement to end lockout: After 15 hours of negotiating that began on Friday... bit.ly/ti81hp" KWCH 12 Twitter account 4 hours ago

* Yahoo! News -- "BREAKING NEWS: AP Source: NBA owners, players reach tentative deal to end lockout (AP)" -- Yahoo! News Twitter Account 6 hours ago

With the definition of tentative in mind, who's to say the deal will unfold after five months of practices and several games being missed at this point. If the deal comes to life, how will this affect the NBA playoffs?

How was the deal put into action?

One thing I have learned over the years is never trust a handshake deal. The other party 95% of the time pulls out of the deal because they didn't want it in the first place. Will the handshake deal be good enough?

* Yahoo! Sports -- "Owners, players reach handshake deal to end lockout yhoo.it/vtnr07 #yahoosports" Yahoo! Sports Twitter Account 5 hours ago

While the players and owners spent 15 hours deal talking on Black Friday while fans were out shopping, a handshake deal may not mean anything. Since there wasn't anything put in writing, the owners can back out of the deal at anytime leaving players and fans sitting in the dark.

Did the players take it as a gentleman's handshake deal? Will the owners stick to the handshake deal? I believe they won't and back out at the last minute.

* NBC Sports -- "NBA owners and players reach a tentative deal to end the 148-day lockout and begin the season on Dec. 25. http://bit.ly/t2zmoG #PBT" NBC Sports Twitter Account 6 hours ago

Five months is a long time for the players to be out. They haven't had practice times, workout times in the gyms they are familiar with. There hasn't been any exhibition matches. No regular season games. Most of all, no income for owners and players.

A short season -- if it happens at all -- starting on Christmas Day is a sad deal considering TV time on Christmas Day will be happening during college bowl games which fans have been following all season without a lockout.

At this point fans should throw the towel in on the NBA and find a new sport to follow for this tentative season.

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