But man-oh-man it doesn't feel like that. It feels as if the National Basketball Association is about to cancel its season.
It's already cancelled games through the first two weeks of December, meaning the first 6 weeks of games.
It seems all a bit silly, if there weren't such big bucks involved. We're talking billionaires doing battle with multi millionaires. But when there are no games, there's no revenue. And when there's no revenue, no one gets paid. No one. Not the owners. Not the players. Not the guy who hawks popcorn in the stands. Not the front-office staff. Not the parking lot attendant.
No one.
Today, the NBA Players Association rejected the league's latest offer reportedly splitting revenues 50/50 (it was 57/43 in favor of players last time) but in exchange the players would get more of "the system's" benefits.
And in rejecting the offer supposedly the "last" – the players association began disbanding the union.
Again it could be just a negotiating ploy, but it sounds and smells like the end is nigh. We'll have the latest on what seems like a terrible scenario, at 11. Rob Powers leads our coverage.
Also at 11, the lack of recovery from the recession is making news in addition to making life miserable for millions of people.
Tonight a new report says that New York State's budget is, midway through the fiscal year, about $350 million short of where it is supposed to be. And it's projected budget deficit for next fiscal year is more than $3 billion. And that raises the real question: Are more cuts on the way?
It's also the foundation for our investigative reporter Jim Hoffer's report tonight about how schools slashed hard by state budget cuts are, in effect, "warehousing" students. Tonight, Jim takes a look at a special ed class in Queens, where undercover video shows several different groups of special ed students trying to learn history and science in a make-shift classroom. And by make shift we mean a teacher lounge, where teachers constantly come in and out to make copies, or heat up their lunches, or use the bathroom.
Not exactly an atmosphere conducive to focused learning.
Jim's eye-opening report airs tonight at 11.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11, right after a special 20/20 Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with Gabby Giffords, the Congresswoman from Arizona who was nearly assassinated last July.
BILL RITTER
