'Looking Like A Season:' NBA, Players Union Reach Deal

Attention, all lockout victims and patron saints of neglect and misery: After 149 days, I think we're back.

The NBA and the NBA Players Association have tentatively reached a deal that will reportedly put in place a 66-game season, set to begin December 25. 

Here's the tweet from CBS Sports' Ken Berger that got everyone out of bed at 2:30 in the morning.

The Dream Shake's 2011-2012 Houston Rockets Season Preview

NBA Free Agency Guide

Free agency and training camps will start December 9th, according to David Stern. How u.

I'm excited, of course. Every single one of you should be excited. The NBA has returned, at last. How refreshing it is to say: The NBA has returned, to distract us from weeknights filled with homework, papers, work, extended family, Robot Chicken and other countless time-wasting units.

At the same time, there's this little voice inside of me that doesn't want me to be happy. I'll title this voice as "Reason," because by all means, we should all be PISSED and we shouldn't forget it. These negotiations were a long-running joke, and for now, this "deal" appears to be a merely a placeholder for a missed punchline.

And yet, we'll take it. We'll take a shortened season, we'll take a valued commodity and we'll not only take it, but we'll welcome it with open arms. We have no choice, because what are we going to do, remove ourselves from it completely? Yeah, fat chance. We know everything. We're diehard NBA fans. We can't let anyone else pick up the slack. We hold the slack, for ourselves and ourselves alone, and everyone else can go watch hockey.

Adjust to renewal as best you can. We'll do the same as the season approaches. I'll post my typical shenanigans. AK will have previews. Someone will have a recap, hopefully. Dave will update you on South Park and other important basketball topics. We'll all be back, I think.

(Make sure you go read elsewhere, too. Especially Jason Friedman over at Rockets.com. He's been scrounging for article ideas for quite a while.)

You know, I can't decide upon the true origin of my excitement: Is it the basketball itself, or is it the feeling of officially being back here once again? I've missed this place. It's always fun. I can't say that about many places.

So, at last, we can talk about basketball, and I don't even care about the bad. The bad still exists, whether or not we'll initially realize it. Hasheem Thabeet still has less coordination than a map written by a four-year-old with the shakes. Terrence Williams still prefers a front-rim miss from behind the arc over a well-timed drive to the basket. Kyle Lowry is still just 98% perfect. There are still flops, still bad calls. Basketball, like any sport, has its flaws. But forget those, if you can. We'll get used to them again later, once all of the other system issues have been worked out.

For now, let's have some more fun, you guys.