NBA players return, month after scheduled opener

New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony smiles while speaking to the media after working out at their practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Exactly one month after the regular season was to have opened, players finally are allowed to enter their team facilities. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony smiles while speaking to the media after working out at their practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Exactly one month after the regular season was to have opened, players finally are allowed to enter their team facilities. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony speaks to the media after working out at their practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Exactly one month after the regular season was to have opened, players finally are allowed to enter their team facilities. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony speaks to the media after working out at their practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Exactly one month after the regular season was to have opened, players finally are allowed to enter their team facilities. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony returned to work Thursday ? and immediately were asked about working together.

Dallas Mavericks players took the floor without knowing if starting center Tyson Chandler would ever join them, and the Miami Heat team they beat in the NBA finals arrived to some bad injury news.

Finally, NBA players are back.

Owners opened the doors of their facilities to players for the first time since locking them out July 1. Exactly one month after the regular season was originally scheduled to begin, players could work out but their coaching staffs couldn't be present because there isn't a new labor deal yet.

"I've got to be the happiest person in the world right now just to be back in the gym, getting a chance to work out with a couple of my teammates," Paul said in New Orleans. "I'm just happy to be back and be back on the court, as I'm sure all the players are."

League officials hope to open training camps next Friday, and that stayed on track Thursday when more than 300 players submitted signatures authorizing the re-formation of the players' association. That paves the way for negotiations to continue on the remaining issues, and both sides hope the deal is ratified sometime next week.

The league planned to return player content, images and videos to NBA.com and its other media by Friday morning after removing it when the lockout began. With the lengthy labor fight all but over, a sense of excitement has returned.

"Yeah, it was," Milwaukee general manager John Hammond said. "Since it was announced that the potential deal was imminent, it occurred immediately. I think immediately, you could kind of feel that in your gut: 'Here we go, we're getting ready to get started again.' I think as each step progresses, that will continue."

In the meantime, the big news remained the focus on the headliners of the 2012 free agent class, which also includes Dwight Howard.

The agent for Deron Williams told The Record of Bergen, N.J. that his client would opt for free agency instead of a contract extension with the Nets, and Yahoo Sports reported that Paul's agent informed the Hornets that he wanted a trade to the Knicks.

Paul and Anthony are friends who spent time together this summer and it's long been speculated they wanted to play together, but Anthony denied trying to recruit his Olympic teammate.

"As far as me recruiting Chris Paul, no, not at all," he said at the Knicks' training facility. "We're very close friends. I'm pretty sure you guys saw him in New York a lot due to the player meetings and stuff like that, but we've never had any conversation about him coming to New York. That's something that I would leave up to him, him and his family. I'm staying away from that."

The Anthony trade saga lasted from the summer of 2010 until Denver finally dealt him to the Knicks in February, and he said he doesn't think the NBA needs a repeat of it now. Yet, he also realizes that "regardless of what I'm saying right here today, that will be the biggest topic, the biggest discussion, at the beginning of the season, the beginning of training camp."

Paul will do his best to ignore it.

"I don't think about it, to tell you the truth," he said. "I'm just ready to get out here and compete and hoop. This is what I do."

In the meantime, the status of the current free agents must be solved. Chandler is one of the biggest, and though he provided the Mavericks the interior defense they needed to finally win a title, they may not spend the money necessary to bring him back.

"You can't see my fingers or toes, but they are crossed hoping that Tyson's coming back," guard Jason Terry said. "He was a big part of what we accomplished here. We've laid a foundation. To take a step backward would be terrible. I'm not saying that we wouldn't have a chance to win this year if Tyson doesn't come back, but it definitely puts things up against us."

Chris Bosh, looking more muscular, arrived at Miami's facility, where LeBron James and Dwyane Wade aren't expected until next week. The Heat also were without Mike Miller, who has battled injuries since signing there last summer. He will miss about eight weeks while recovering from hernia surgery this week.

There was no guarantee Miller would return anyway, given the considerable speculation the Heat would waive him via the amnesty clause that will be in the new CBA.

"I know Mike. He's a strong guy, he's going to stay positive and he's going to get back as soon as he can," said Heat forward Udonis Haslem, who went to the University of Florida with Miller and considers him one of his very closest friends. "The key with Mike is, we've got to fight him not to get back too fast. He's going to want to be out there. He's going to want to play. He's got to just pace himself and get healthy."

Otherwise, the news around the league was positive. Golden State GM Larry Riley was greeted with a warm welcome from a security guard upon his arrival at Oracle Arena.

"That guy greeted me with a huge smile and just happy to be back," Riley said. "I think that's the opinion, that's the feeling that we're going to see out of a lot of people. Now he's a happy guy anyway. But he was overly happy today."

___

AP Sports Writers Jaime Aron in Dallas, Brett Martel in New Orleans, Chris Jenkins in Milwaukee, Tim Reynolds in Miami, and Antonio Gonzalez in Oakland, Calif., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: twitter.com/Briancmahoney

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-01-BKN-Players-Return/id-60abc9cc34a440cebdbdff8aebb1f0bf

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Police: Father fatally shoots 4 kids, wounds wife (AP)

BAY CITY, Texas ? Laura Gonzalez was happy to be back at work after three weeks away that included a stay at a battered women's shelter. She saw it as the beginning of a new life. One without her husband and the father of her four children, she told co-workers. She wasn't going back to him this time, she said, and left for home.

Less than an hour later, her 24-year-old husband, Jose Avila, launched a brutal final assault. First he shot his wife three times. Then, he began shooting the children. Avila's final act was to kill himself.

Two of the children died at a hospital Thursday, a day after their two siblings were killed in the shooting that rattled the small southeast Texas town of Bay City. Their mother is hospitalized in critical condition.

As details trickled out, a picture emerged Thursday of a family long struggling with violence, including an assault reported by Gonzalez just before Thanksgiving. After that, she went to a battered women's shelter.

"I asked her how she was doing because I knew she was at the crisis center. She said she was trying to make something of her freedom and a better life for herself and her children," said Alejandro Gonzalez, a fellow waiter at La Casona, the Mexican restaurant where Gonzalez worked.

"She wanted to make a better life for his kids because they see all the violence," he added, recounting the conversation he had with Gonzalez hours before Avila turned on her.

Although Gonzalez left the trailer home she shared with her husband after reporting the assault, Bay City Lt. Andrew Lewis said she refused to press charges. He didn't know how long she stayed at the shelter.

Wednesday's violence unfolded on a quiet street in Bay City ? a town about 65 miles southwest of Houston ? just as two nearby schools were letting out. The couple started arguing inside the trailer, and Avila shot his wife twice, Lewis said. She ran out to the front yard, where Avila shot her a third time. Then, he turned on the children.

"We heard ... that he was walking around waving a gun," Lewis said, describing the violent scene that unfolded on a lawn now decorated with a makeshift memorial of teddy bears, candles and prayer books. At least one student witnessed the incident.

Two of the brothers, aged 3 and 5, died of their wounds at a Houston hospital Wednesday. Their 2-year-old sister and 4-year-old brother had been on life support but died Thursday. Gonzalez was in critical condition Thursday night at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Police have not officially released the names of the victims, but co-workers and neighbors identified Avila's wife as Laura Gonzalez.

The family had moved into the trailer home near Bay City's Western-style downtown about a year ago, neighbors said. They appeared to live a quiet life. On occasion, next-door neighbor Isuro Perez heard them arguing, but it appeared to be nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Just a run-of-the-mill dispute between a married couple.

"He always plays soccer out here in this field out here, plays soccer with his kids," Perez said, pointing to a grassy area opposite the row of trailer homes. "They were nice people, nothing went wrong really. They were a happy family."

At work, though, Gonzalez portrayed a different picture. Alejandro Gonzalez said he once saw her with a black eye. And Ruby Gomez, a waitress at La Casona, said Laura Gonzalez had told her about problems she had with her husband.

"She had to leave to get the kids in the afternoon because he threatened her that if she left him he was going to kill the four kids and her," Gomez said.

Once, Gomez said, Gonzalez told her Avila had locked her in the house and gone to work. She escaped through a window and went to a shelter, Gomez recounted. That was the second time she left him, and vowed not to go back.

The first time "he convinced her that he was going to change and that he really loved his kids, and convinced her to return to live with him," Gomez said.

Still, the tragic outcome of the relationship came as a shock to Gonzalez's co-workers and to other residents of Bay City ? a town of just over 17,000 people surrounded by large ranches and farmland. The shooting was the talk of the town Thursday, as residents drove slowly past the couple's home.

Some stopped to add something to the growing memorial. Others cried. Several prayed.

"It's going to be sad for the momma when she wakes up and finds out she lost her children," said Gloria Carranza, a 41-year-old Bay City native who added pink and blue balloons to the memorial.

"Things like this don't happen in a small town like Bay City," she said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_re_us/us_texas_children_shot

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2 small quakes rumble in Lincoln County, Oklahoma (AP)

PRAGUE, Okla. ? Two small earthquakes have shaken central Oklahoma.

The U.S. Geological Survey says both earthquakes were centered in Lincoln County and recorded between 10:42 p.m. and 11:05 p.m. Friday.

The first 2.7 magnitude earthquake was recorded about six miles west northwest of Prague. The second was a 2.3 magnitude tremor whose epicenter was five miles south southeast of Sparks and seven miles northeast of Meeker. No injuries were reported.

Several small earthquakes have been recorded recently in the area, including a 3.7 magnitude quake near Prague on Thanksgiving.

A 5.6 magnitude quake, the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma, shook the state Nov. 5. That quake damaged dozens of homes, buckled a highway and caused other damage.

Geologists say earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest felt by humans.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_us/us_oklahoma_earthquakes

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Pa. capital takeover challenged in federal court (AP)

HARRISBURG, Pa. ? The state takeover of Pennsylvania's financially troubled capital city received a fresh challenge Thursday, as three Harrisburg residents filed a federal lawsuit calling it an unconstitutional violation of their rights and asking for it to be stopped.

The suit names Gov. Tom Corbett, who signed a law on Oct. 20 enabling an unprecedented takeover of Harrisburg, and the Corbett appointee who, if confirmed, would have broad authority to force the city to pay down a massive debt tied to its trash incinerator.

The lawsuit was filed by a former mayoral candidate, a firefighters' union president and a religious leader. It alleges that the law and the state's takeover violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.

A Corbett administration spokeswoman said she had not seen the lawsuit and could not immediately comment.

The suit is the latest twist in a battle over who will end up footing the $300 million incinerator debt.

The first attempt to stop the takeover failed last week when a federal bankruptcy judge threw out a petition by a divided City Council to get federal bankruptcy protection for Harrisburg. The judge said the city had been legally barred by a separate state law ? signed June 30 by Corbett ? from seeking bankruptcy protection and, in any case, had no authority to go over the mayor's head to file it.

The Republican governor and Democratic Mayor Linda Thompson had opposed the filing. Supporters of the bankruptcy petition viewed it as the best way to force creditors, such as Dauphin County and bond insurer Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., to assume part of the incinerator debt.

Also Thursday, a state judge heard arguments in Corbett's case to appoint longtime municipal finance lawyer David Unkovic as Harrisburg's receiver.

The Corbett administration has already ordered several layoffs and increases in parking fines and business license fees. If confirmed, Unkovic would have even more power, including the authority to sell city assets, sign contracts and file for bankruptcy, but not raise taxes.

Under questioning in court, Unkovic called the financing of the incinerator "disturbing." Asked by reporters later to elaborate on what he meant, Unkovic said he was not prepared to go into detail.

"When you look at the structure of the debt overall and the types of financings that were done over the years, it raises questions about what the ultimate solution was for that incinerator, and whether these financings really were viewed even by the participants at that time as solutions to the problem or whether they were dealing with a short-term problem and moving it down the road a bit," he said.

Thompson and City Council had been unable to come up with a debt repayment plan, as the city fell tens of millions of dollars behind on debt payments and lawsuits piled up.

State lawmakers from suburban Harrisburg began writing the takeover legislation when they became concerned that the city would seek court approval to impose a tax on commuters and file a bankruptcy petition that could otherwise hurt their constituents.

Harrisburg is dogged by a number of financial problems, but the debt on its nearly 40-year-old trash incinerator is the most pressing. Faced with the costly decision to abandon the polluting incinerator and clean up the site, or finance an overhaul, City Council voted for the latter in hopes that it would one day emerge as a profitable investment.

But the renovation went awry and ended up being far more expensive. Meanwhile, Harrisburg city residents now pay among the highest trash-disposal rates in the nation, while the facility can't generate nearly enough money to pay the debt.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_re_us/us_harrisburg_financial_woes

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Merkel: Financial crisis solution to 'take years' (AP)

BERLIN ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel flatly rejected any quick-fix ideas to try to resolve the European financial crisis, telling lawmakers Friday that treaty changes and stricter controls were the only path forward ? and that the process could take years.

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are pushing for a reorganization of existing European Union regulations, which they is needed to prevent the eurozone from breaking apart.

In laying out to the lower house of Parliament plans she will take to a Dec. 9 EU summit in Brussels, Merkel insisted the 17 nations who use the euro currency need to take measures to restore market confidence. She added that eurozone financial regulations had been violated too frequently.

"The German government has made it clear that the European crisis will not be solved in one fell swoop..." she said. "It's a process, and this process will take years."

She reiterated her objection to so-called eurobonds, telling Parliament that jointly backed government debt across the eurozone is no solution.

The discussion about eurobonds "does not contribute to the resolution of the crisis," she said. Instead, she said, the eurozone needs a new "stability union" with stronger fiscal controls and debt regulations.

The German leader said her goal, together with Sarkozy's, is to change European treaties "to avoid a splitting of the eurozone and non-eurozone members," through a strengthening of EU institutions.

Sarkozy called Thursday for "refounding and rethinking the organization of Europe."

___

Associated Press Writers David Rising and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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RIM writes off value of tablet inventory (AP)

NEW YORK ? Research In Motion Ltd., the struggling maker of the BlackBerry phones, is writing off much of its inventory of PlayBook tablets, since it has to sell them at a deep discount.

The Canadian company on Friday said it's taking a pre-tax charge of $485 million in the just-ended quarter to account for the declining value of the tablets. The model originally priced at $500 now costs $200.

A year ago, co-CEO Jim Balsillie said pent-up interest in the PlayBook was "really overwhelming." Companies are looking for an equivalent of the iPad of corporate use, he said.

In March, Balsillie said "The launch of the PlayBook may well be the most significant development for RIM since the launch of the of the first BlackBerry device back in 1999."

But when the tablet went on sale in April, reviewers puzzled over the lack of email software, saying the device seemed half-baked. RIM now promises updated software in February.

RIM said it shipped 150,000 PlayBooks to stores and distributors in the fiscal third quarter, which ended Nov. 26. "Sell-through," or the number actually bought by users, was slightly higher, reflecting sales of tablets shipped earlier. It shipped 500,000 in the first quarter and 200,000 in the second.

RIM also said it sold 14.1 million BlackBerrys in the third quarter, slightly better than analysts expected. It then expects sales to fall slightly in the current quarter, roughly in line with analysts' expectations.

The company provided preliminary revenue and profit figures for the third quarter that were lower than it previously projected, but not a surprise to analysts.

RIM said it expects earnings at the "low to mid point" of the $1.20 to $1.40 per share it previously forecast. Analysts polled by FactSet have on average been expecting $1.18 per share.

The company expects revenue slightly the below the $5.3 billion to $5.6 billion in its previous forecast. Analysts had been expecting $5.27 billion, on average.

RIM shares fell $1.76, or 9.5 percent, to $16.82 in morning trading Friday. The stock hit a seven-year low of $15.98 last month.

The PlayBook charge comes as analysts have started to conclude that RIM's management has no chance of really righting the ship. They've started to value the company not on its future prospects, but on how much it would be worth if acquired, broken up, or simply run down while keeping BlackBerry service going.

The company is also taking a charge of $50 million for an embarrassing October outage of email and Web services that lasted days for millions of overseas BlackBerry users. It briefly spread to the U.S. and Canada before the company was able to contain the damage.

RIM reports fiscal third-quarter earnings on Dec. 15.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_hi_te/us_research_in_motion_tablet

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North Korea claims progress in uranium enrichment (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea ? North Korea said Wednesday it is making rapid progress on work to enrich uranium and build a light-water nuclear power plant, increasing worries that the country is developing another way to make atomic weapons.

Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said construction of an experimental light-water reactor and low enriched uranium are "progressing apace." The statement added that North Korea has a sovereign right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and that "neither concession nor compromise should be allowed."

The statement by an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Concerns about North Korea's atomic capability took on renewed urgency in November 2010 when the country disclosed a uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons, in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.

North Korea has been building a light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex since last year. Such a reactor is ostensibly for civilian energy purposes, but it would give the North a reason to enrich uranium. At low levels, uranium can be used in power reactors, but at higher levels it can be used in nuclear bombs.

Earlier this month, North Korean state media said "the day is near at hand" when the reactor will come into operation. Washington worries about reported progress on the reactor construction, saying it would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking to reporters Wednesday at an international aid forum in the South Korean port city of Busan, didn't address the North's statement on uranium. She called the U.S.-South Korean alliance strong and mentioned the recent one-year anniversary of North Korea's artillery attack on a front-line South Korean island that killed four people.

"Let me reaffirm that the United States stands with our ally, and we look to North Korea to take concrete steps that promote peace and stability and denuclearization," Clinton said.

Five countries, including the United States, have been in on-again, off-again talks with North Korea to provide Pyongyang with aid in exchange for disarmament. North Korea pulled out of the nuclear disarmament talks in early 2009 to protest international condemnation of its prohibited long-range rocket test.

In recent months, North Korea has repeatedly expressed its willingness to return to the talks, and tensions between the Koreas have eased. Diplomats from the Koreas and the United States have had separate nuclear talks, and cultural and religious visits by South Koreans to the North have resumed.

South Korean and U.S. officials, however, have demanded the North halt its uranium-enrichment program, freeze nuclear and missile tests and allow international nuclear inspectors back into the country before resuming negotiations.

China, North Korea's main ally and benefactor, did not respond directly to Pyongyang's latest claims but appealed for an early resumption of the nuclear disarmament talks.

"Under the current circumstances, we hope all the relevant parties will make joint efforts to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in response to a question at a daily media briefing Wednesday. "All the relevant issues of concern can be discussed within the framework of the six-party talks."

The North Korean statement accused the United States and its allies of "groundlessly" taking issue with the North's peaceful nuclear activities. They are "deliberately laying a stumbling block in the way of settling the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula through dialogue and negotiations," the statement said.

Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the North's statement appeared aimed at applying pressure on Washington and the international community to rejoin the nuclear disarmament talks quickly. "North Korea is expected to step up its rhetoric," he said.

Also on Wednesday, Seoul's Unification Ministry said a South Korean official who recently traveled to the North to help monitor the distribution of flour by a civic group confirmed that the aid has reached North Korean children. Some international donors have been wary of providing aid out of concern it could be diverted to the military and top government officials.

__

Associated Press writer Foster Klug in Busan, South Korea and Charles Hutzler in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear

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Researchers' new recipe cooks up better tissue 'phantoms'

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) ? The precise blending of tiny particles and multicolor dyes transforms gelatin into a realistic surrogate for human tissue. These tissue mimics, known as "phantoms," provide an accurate proving ground for new photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging technologies. "The ability to provide phantoms that are capable of mimicking desired properties of soft tissue is critical to advance the development of new, more-accurate imaging technologies," said Stanislav Emelianov of the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of a paper appearing in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express that describes an improved method for fabricating tissue phantoms.

Ultrasonic imaging uses high-frequency acoustic pulses to probe the structure of tissues. Another technique, photoacoustic imaging, uses low-energy laser pulses to create tiny acoustic waves that propagate through tissues. Certain tissues and materials (e.g. blood, nanoparticles used in certain tests, and fluorescent dyes), however, readily absorb the optical wavelengths typically used in photoacoustic imaging. By combining acoustic and photoacoustic imaging techniques, it's possible to create a more comprehensive picture of soft tissues. Designing effective imaging devices that can concurrently harness these two technologies, however, requires true-to-life phantoms. Emelianov and his colleagues have met this need by designing and testing a novel combination of additives that enable gelatin to acquire acoustical and optical properties that accurately match soft tissue in humans.

To match the acoustical properties, the researchers added 40-micron silica spheres to the gelatin. These particles help scatter the acoustical signal, matching the behavior of normal tissue. An emulsion of fat was also used to attenuate, or absorb, the acoustical signal. The fat additive also enhanced optical scattering of the mixture. The final ingredients were commercial dyes -- India ink, Direct Red 81, and Evans blue -- which provided similar optical absorption to natural tissues.

"These combined characteristics are of particular value because of the growing use of combined ultrasonic and photoacoustic imaging in clinical and preclinical research," says Emelianov. "Furthermore, there has been increased interest in utilizing these combined technologies in clinical applications, such as vascular imaging, lymph node assessment, and atherosclerotic plaque characterization."

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Journal Reference:

  1. Jason R. Cook, Richard R. Bouchard, Stanislav Y. Emelianov. Tissue-mimicking phantoms for photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging. Biomedical Optics Express, 2011; 2 (11): 3193 DOI: 10.1364/BOE.2.003193

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111130115816.htm

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Danny Groner: NBA Season Salvaged: 5 Best Newspaper Columnist Reactions

After a 149-day lockout, the NBA announced this weekend that owners and players had finally reached a tentative deal on a collective bargaining agreement that will save the season. Well, 66 games of it. The season will start with a much-anticipated tripleheader on Christmas. While some questions still linger, some sportswriters have already begun to speculate what the short free agency and training camp periods could mean for their hometown teams.

As people are getting geared up for the season, some warn that things aren't exactly back to normal just yet. "It's nonsensical to declare winners and losers. Everybody lost. Just leave it at that," says Jeff Schultz in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. So what should we make of the new deal? Sportswriters sound off:

We'll get over it: "You cheer because the NBA is back with a season the way it should be. A 66-game schedule that begins with three marquee games on Christmas? Are you kidding me? They should do that every season," says Bill Plaschke in the Los Angeles Times. "The NBA is back, and right on time, the games now filled with extra meaning, the playoffs potentially filled with different teams." All is well again.

The game has been hurt: "If the players had any rights trampled during negotiations, they did a lousy job of communicating it. They lacked unity and, until filing an antitrust lawsuit late in the game, an obvious plan," says David Haugh in the Chicago Tribune. And David Stern seized on that. "But both sides suffered from the fact that, in lively cities such as Chicago, not enough people missed the NBA... The indifference reinforced the league needed the public more than the public needed the league."

TV contracts were too important: "There will be an NBA season; Because they couldn't afford to flush almost a billion dollars in TV revenue, the Grinches of greed gave it back to us," says Mike Wise in The Washington Post. "The three games played on Dec. 25 are a key component in the annual $930 million the league and its players receive from their broadcast partners (about one-quarter of the $4?billion that would have been lost with a canceled season)." That's what this deal was really about.

This deal helps the Bucks...: "The NBA commissioner had allowed the game to spiral out of control in so many distasteful ways," says Michael Hunt in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "and it was becoming very hard for a small-market franchise like the Bucks to do business." The league was getting a bit too top-heavy with a few dominant teams. "It's incumbent upon the Bucks to develop talent, keep the payroll commensurate to market size, and play well enough to sell tickets. But it's up to the league to give the Bucks a fighting chance to keep the players they develop." They appear to be trying to help.

... And the Celtics? "It's fair to say the Celtics got most of what they wanted regarding the schedule. There being 16 fewer games will help a team that almost certainly couldn't survive 82 in one piece. But the fact that the 66 they'll play will be squeezed into four months isn't the most promising prospect for Team AARP," says Steve Bulpett in the Boston Herald.

?

Follow Danny Groner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DannyGroner

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danny-groner/nba-season-salvaged-5-bes_b_1115019.html

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