NBA commissioner David Stern has canceled games through Dec. 15. (GETTY IMAGES)

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story on the economic impact of the NBA lockout to the networks and advertisers. The amount of money lost had the 2011-12 season been canceled is astronomical. Money is the main reason why there was a lockout in the first place, but money was also the reason why the league and its players now have a tentative agreement in place that would end the labor strife.

Simply put, NBA commissioner David Stern and the Labor Relations Committee did not want to stretch the lockout beyond Christmas Day or late January. All those so-called NBA experts who were saying “the sky is falling” and “the season is lost” should have taken a closer look at this bit of information before they made their doom-and-gloom forecasts:

– The NBA lockout greatly affects Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and ABC, and Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Sports, who pay the league $930 million per season to air games. Advertisers spent $807 million on NBA games that aired on cable and network TV last season, according to Kantar Media, an ad-tracking unit of WPP PLC.

– Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the New York Knicks, in a November public filing said if canceled games aren’t rescheduled, the company’s financial results would see a “material negative effect.” The Knicks are unveiling the first phase of their $850 million renovation this year and planned to raise ticket prices 49% in the lower seating section.

Stern and the owners threatened to kill the season but, in reality, the bottom line is this: the majority of the league’s owners did not want to wipe out the entire season. The Heat’s Micky Arison didn’t want to cancel the season, the Lakers’ Jerry Buss didn’t want to cancel the season and the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban didn’t want to cancel the season.

Now, there is a small faction of hardliners, led by Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who didn’t mind missing games. But those same small-market owners also said they were holding out because they wanted more competitive balance, and they didn’t want another LeBron James-type episode where a player can hold a team hostage while he considers his free-agency options.

The players are willing to split the basketball-related income at 50-50. In return, all they want is to tweak the system to allow room for player movement. That’s all!

Union executive director Billy Hunter said weeks ago that the collective bargaining agreement was at the 2-yard line and a deal was on the table if the owners just loosened up some of their demands. Stern canceled games through Dec. 15, but purposely left the all-important Christmas Day schedule on the table. Why? Because ABC and ESPN have large stakes in this day and Stern does not want to disappoint his TV partners.

It’s all about the money. Always has, always will. There is way too much money at stake for the league to simply press the red button and nuke the entire season.

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Lakers guard Derek Fisher (middle) say the players' union remains solid despite the fear of losing the entire 2011-12 season. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The first significant dent to the 2011-12 NBA season was delivered Friday when the league announced that training camps have been postponed and 43 preseason games were removed from the calendar.

All games from Oct. 9-15 are off, the league said. Camps were expected to open Oct. 3 but that seems likely to change too.

While the NFL players and owners were able to save football games this year, the NBA players and owners remain on opposite sides of the collective bargaining table and no new deal is on the horizon. Union president Derek Fisher and union chief Billy Hunter have already told players to prepare for a long work stoppage and some, including Reggie Williams (Caja Laboral/Spain), Wilson Chandler (Zhejiang/China) and J.R. Smith (Zhejiang/China), have already signed contracts overseas.

The last time the NBA faced this type of ordeal was in 1998-99 when the regular season was reduced to 50 games and the All-Star game was canceled. The difference this time around is the owners are prepared to go a step further by sacrificing the ENTIRE season to prove their point.

The major sticking points are: the owners are asking for a 50-50 split of league revenue while the players want it closer to the original 57-43 deal that heavily favors them; the owners want a hard salary cap while the players want a soft cap; the owners want to protect themselves from guaranteed contracts while the players want status quo.

Basically, the players believe the old system works just fine and do not want change. The majority of the owners claim more than half their peers are losing money and feel the system is broken and needs a major facelift. The rich teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks, really don’t have an issue with the system, but aren’t opposed to tweaking it. The small market owners, such as Cleveland’s Dan Gilbert and Phoenix’s Robert Sarver, are more adamant in revising the league’s financial structure. The owners have made it crystal clear that unless ALL their demands are met they are determined to sit this season out.

The owners are more unified than ever before, and are banking on the belief that the players will soon crack once the paychecks stop coming. The players say they remain unified and are willing to stand up to the serious threat of losing millions. For how long? That’s the million-dollar question in this whole standoff.

Both sides still hope the entire regular season, scheduled to begin Nov. 1, can be saved. But unless the owners have a major change of heart, the only way the 2011-12 NBA season can be saved is the players must make major, major concessions.

The unfortunate thing about this whole bargaining session is only one side will win – the owners. Unless the players are willing to play elsewhere or have saved up so much money that it’ll last a lifetime, the owners will prevail because the owners hold all the chips. They can’t hang their hats on playing in Europe or Asia because the majority of them don’t want to move their families overseas. They can’t hang their hats on the regular season because the owners are not afraid to see that go down the drain.

Both sides said they hope to meet again next week. They probably need a deal by the middle of October to avoid canceling regular-season games. Asked if he thought things were far enough along to still believe that was possible, Commissioner David Stern said: “I don’t have any response to that. I just don’t. I don’t know the answer.”

So, can the season be saved? Yes, but it is up to the players to decide because the owners have already made up their minds.

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Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert

About 15 minutes after the Dallas Mavericks defeated LeBronJames and the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert sent a message on his Twitter page to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a statement that included a shot at LeBron.

“Congrats to Mark C.& entire Mavs org.,” Gilbert wrote. “Mavs NEVER stopped & now entire franchise gets rings. Old Lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE.”

Obviously, Gilbert is still steaming over what transpired last summer when James left the Cavaliers and joined his good friends Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Gilbert accused James of quitting in the playoffs the past two seasons and, moments after LeBron made The Decision to take his talents to South Beach on ESPN, the Cavs owner promised that karma would prevent James from winning a championship and predicted his Cavaliers would win their first title before “the self-proclaimed King” won one.

He can thank the Mavericks for keeping the “Curse of White Man from Town” alive. But Gilbert wasn’t the only one who posted a message on Twitter shortly after the Mavs defeated the Heat in Game 6.

Former Cavaliers guard Mo Williams, who was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in February, said the Mavericks’ victory has helped ease some of his pain. Williams wrote: “Dallas just healed my HEART.”

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Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert blasted LeBron James on the team's Web site. (CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER)

There is a lot of smoke emanating from northeast Ohio. Irate Cavaliers fans are burning LeBron James jerseys and T-shirts, and there is steam coming out of Dan Gilbert’s ears.

The Cavaliers owner was absolutely livid, and rightfully so, when James went on national TV Thursday night to tell the whole world that he is ditching Cleveland for Miami.

“In this fall … man, this is very tough … I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat,” James told Jim Gray during a one-hour made-for-TV event televised live on ESPN.

“That was the conclusion I work up to this morning,” James said. Then, he explained, “I feel like this is going to give me the best opportunity to win, and to win for multiple years. And not only to win in the regular season and to win five games in a row or three games in a row, I wanted to be able to win championships and I feel like I can compete down there.”

As soon as LeBron uttered the words “Miami” and “Heat,” Cavaliers Nation fell hard. It must have felt like someone had just punched them in the gut and then kicked while they were down. Or, better yet, Cavs fans now know it feels to get dumped in public, have beer poured over your head and watch your ex leave the bar with a hot-looking chick who barely speaks English. Cleveland just got bamboozled by one of their own, a guy who they have worshiped and revered since he was 16 years old.

Hours after the devastating announcement, Gilbert wrote an open letter to Cavaliers fans and posted it on the team’s Web site. Gilbert wrote:

“As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.

This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.

Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.

The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.

There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.

You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight: “I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE”

You can take it to the bank.

But Gilbert didn’t stop there. He continued to blast the self-proclaimed “King James,” telling the Associated Press that James showed his true colors Thursday night and claimed that he “quit” on the Cavaliers during Games 2, 4, 5 and 6 in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics.

“Watch the tape,” Gilbert said. “The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar. People have covered up for him for way too long.”

LeBron James' pre-game powder routine will be moving to South Beach (ASSOCIATED PRESS).

Then, taking a page out of Stephen King’s made-into-movie novel “Thinner,” Gilbert slapped the “Curse of White Man from Town” on James and promised that the “Cleveland Curse” has now been lifted because James will be carrying that hex with him to South Beach.

“The good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called ‘curse’ on Cleveland, Ohio,” Gilbert said. “The self-declared former ‘King’ will be taking the ‘curse’ with him down south. And until he does ‘right’ by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma. Just watch.”

Should LeBron be concerned about a curse? Maybe not right now, but the minute the Heat start losing multiple games, James’ knees and elbows mysteriously begin to swell and his highlight-reel moves turn into an episode of “Bloopers & Practical Jokes,” then maybe he should seriously consider drawing blood from his hand and dripping it into a plate of strawberry pie. Or, he could just hire some guy named Richie “The Hammer” Ginelli to do the dirty work for him.

Growing up in nearby Cleveland, James should be well versed in the sad, sad history of professional sports teams in Ohio. Whether it’s bad luck or simply cursed, Clevelanders have endured many, many heartbreakers: The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot Over Ehlo, The Indians’ Ninth-Inning Collapse in the 1997 World Series, and now The Betrayal.

Those who are close to James say that the two-time NBA MVP painfully wrestled with this decision for months, but ultimately he simply could not pass up an opportunity to play with his good friends and Olympic teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.

Wade says the Heat now have a huge bulls-eye on their back, while James has become public enemy No. 1 to 29 teams in the league.

Bulls fans despise him, Knicks fans will treat him like he’s Reggie Miller and boo him profusely when shows his face at Madison Square Garden, and his cronies may have to pay their way to watch Jay-Z’s concerts from here on out.

And then there is Cleveland. James should seriously consider moving his whole family out of Akron and into South Beach because it’s no longer safe to live in his hometown. The people of Cleveland, Ohio, have already severed ties with LeBron and vilified him as the 2.0 version of Art Modell. LeBron James has become LeBart Modell.

So, unless James wins a championship with the Heat and soon, The Curse of White Man from Town will be hovering over him like The Curse of the Bambino or The Curse of the Billy Goat.

Good luck, LeBron.

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