2011-2012 Season

The 2011–12 NBA season, the 66th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), begun with the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the owners of the 30 NBA teams and the NBA's players. The previous CBA, which was ratified in 2005, expired at 12:01 AM EDT on July 1, 2011, resulting in a lockout. With the new deal in place, the season was shortened from the normal 82 games to 66, because of the two months of inactivity. The season begins on December 25, 2011 and ends on April 26, 2012.

Preseason

Training camp began on December 9. A revised two-game preseason schedule was planned.

Regular season

A revised 66-game regular season will begin December 25, 2011, with five Christmas Day games, two more than the original schedule.[18] The league built a new schedule from scratch based on available arena dates. In October, the league allowed arenas in Los Angeles and Chicago to reassign NBA dates for other events. The number of games between conferences is affected as was the case in the 1999 lockout, when each team played only five or six interconference games in a 50-game schedule. Normally, each team plays teams in the other conference twice each.[19] Teams will play 48 conference games and 18 non-conference games in a 66-game schedule, compared to 52 conference games and 30 non-conference games in a normal 82-game season.[20] Teams will play on average two more games per month and also be required to play three-consecutive games at least once in the season. In total, the league will have 42 sets of back-to-back-to-back games. The three-game set, or "triple", has not occurred since the shortened 1999 season, which featured 64 triples and sloppier play due to tired players.[21][22] Before that, the last occurrence was two decades earli

er.[22]

Notable occurrences

On December 8, 2011, the New Orleans Hornets, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets agreed to a trade that would send Chris Paul to Los Angeles. NBA commissioner David Stern nullified the trade, saying the Hornets were better off keeping Paul than accepting the terms of the deal. The league had acquired the Hornets from former owner George Shinn, and the commissioner's office has final authority over all management decisions.[23] Several of the other owners, who co-own the Hornets, also opposed the deal.[24] Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert felt that the Lakers were acquiring the best player in the deal, Paul, and reducing their salary to possibly acquire Dwight Howard.[23][25] Owners believed the trade would have sent a bad message coming out of the lockout, where one goal was to give small-market teams a chance to keep their players. Paul has long been speculated to be leaving the Hornets as a free agent after the end of the season. Magic Johnson said the trade denial "sends a bad message to fans", and Dwyane Wade called the situation a "mess".[26] The three teams involved in the trade attempted to lobby the league to reverse its ruling[27] as well as reconstruct the deal that would satisfy the league, only to met by resistance from the league who wants the Hornets to receive more youth and draft picks. Later, the Lakers pulled out of the trade talk.

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