Finally, some of us get to see some action!

Well, finally we get to see, (or in most of our cases, hear about), NBA players playing some ball, instead of playing in Charity Golf Tournaments or on talk-shows whinging about not getting paid.

Frankly, I'm getting sick of footage of David Stern saying that there has been no progress in negotiations. I want to see players doing what they are good at, playing basketball. Players featured were Tim Hardaway (game MVP - voted online, which was refreshing...), Alonzo Mourning (sarcastic "Woo Hoo.."), Gary Payton, Sacramento's Chris Webber (that doesn't sound right, does it? Sacramento's Chris Webber... I don't like it), and Karl Malone (even bigger sarcastic "Woo Hoo..").

I think the game was good a idea, other than the fact that it was for charity, which is always a good thing, the other good fact was that it got the players back in the flow, back in front of fans and competing (even though it has the defensive presence of an All-Star game), and reminded the players what they are missing, other than the almighty dollar.

About 10,000 tickets were sold or donated away, out of a 12,000 capacity arena. One would think that considering the world hasn't seen an NBA game since the Almighty Chicago Bulls kick Utah's proverbial butt in the Finals, the stadium would have been packed. I don't know whether the fact that is wasn't was because it was held in a non-NBA team city (Atlantic City NJ), or maybe it wasn't publicised enough, or it might be that fans are just sick of it, and would rather watch a gridion game. Maybe it was a combination of all of those.

In other lockout news, Nike has halted payments to their NBA players. Other show companies, such as Reebok (are they still in business..?) and Adidas, are still paying theirs, but NIKE has such a large number of clients, I guess they feel they aren't getting the work out of them that they should be with the lockout still continuing (322 up to Saturday). Now, I read that middle-range players get about US$100,000 a year, where an All-Star may get anywhere from US$250K to US$1 million. Now, you can't tell me that Michael Jordan settled for only US$1 million. Fair enough that's heaps of money, to us, but Michael would spend that much just on Christmas presents. Speaking of MJ, apparently, now don't quote me on this, but apparently, Nike is still paying their big-name signature clients, such as MJ and Penny Hardaway. Talk about your "keeping the big names happy" policy. It's the big names that shouldn't need the money, well, not as much as the "middle-range" players who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

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