NBA Lockout Reactions: Five Stages Of Grief

We knew this could happen. A summer without negotiation begat a last-ditch round of meetings to save the season. But the games aren't canceled until they are canceled, and thus the bloggers on SB Nation's network of team blogs are left picking up the pieces on Tuesday.

Below we present a sampling of reaction from around SB Nation NBA's team hubs. It's organized to reflect the Kübler-Ross model for dealing with the five stages of grief.

Denial: At Posting and Tosting, Seth has semi-convinced himself that he's relieved by the official announcement of the lockout. Please help him.

In a way, I'm just relieved to not be dreading the first bad news anymore. At times, the wait for word from the negotiation table has felt like a long, sloppy basketball game feels. The kind you know well, where you've almost accepted a loss, and would happily just run out the clock if there wasn't the slimmest, flimsiest shave of a chance of a winning end, and even a win would make you kind of queasy.

Anger: At Silver Screen and Roll, bluexfalcon is mad:

Damn [REDACTED] Owners! Those [REDACTED] of [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. Get a [REDACTED] deal done, meet halfway or at the [REDACTED] middle-ish. NO. MORE. [REDACTED] GAMES. CANCELLED.

Bargaining: At Bullets Forever, Mike Prada explains why the Wizards *need* to be playing.

To me, 2011/12 was supposed to be the year where Wall began to climb to superstardom. Now, the year has been wiped away, and sometimes, it's hard not to write a ton about Wall.

Depression: John Raffo has a harrowing tale of how the Clips Nation team is handling the news. SPOILER: It's not going well.

Then-- what was that? A sound... coming from the basement. Steve was jittery and wanted to clear out but I slapped him, hard, and he settled down. We found the door to the basement and went down the stairs. Lawler's Law was in the corner, curled up in a ball, weeping. Through the sobbing and stammering, he told us the news. It was what we all feared, the worst of the worst: The "Ca-ca-ca-cancellation of ga-ga-games." Now Steve was sobbing too, a complete mess. I threw Law over my shoulder, carried him upstairs, and called the paramedics.

Acceptance: At Blazersedge, Dave has a plan to get through the lockout.

The only reasonable response I can see is simply to ignore the powers that be, let them have their little fight, and enjoy doing what we do in the meantime. ...  First, it's probably time to catch up on some movies, stream a TV series that you missed once upon a time, take a hike, enjoy eating out, say hello to your family, or take your pick of other favorite activities. ...  Second, get your NBA fix in places like this. There are tons of non-lockout topics that smart basketball fans can chew over together. ...  That's one thing they can't take away from us. The discussion may involve their sport but in the end this isn't their place or their conversation, it's ours.

Follow SB Nation NBA for breaking news and analysis on the lockout -- however long it lasts.