Let's cut right to the core of this one: according to NBA.com, an tentative agreement to end the lockout has been reached.

What's next? First thing is reforming the union. At the same time, this settlement will have to be turned into a Collective Bargaining Agreement, which the players must vote on, and then get the owners to sign it. This should take about a week or so, and after that, it's free agency and training camp.

Free agency & training camp should start on the 9th of December, with the actual season starting on the lovely date of the 25th of December, and we're to expect a 66-game schedule.

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Frowning while biting my lip, I check the score: 7.5. Seven hours and thirty minutes into the latest meeting. While my guess is that it's a good thing the meeting is still going, my gut has long since given up on trying to predict where this roller-coaster will take us.

According to former ESPN sportswriter Chris Sheridan, an NBA spokesman came into the media room at around 5pm, informing the assembled media that "They're still meeting. That's your update." After that, it remained silent for a while, with not even the boldest or brashest of sports-writers attempting to predict the outcome.

The slow trickle of information seeping from the meeting room, other than the candid "owners and Players have decided on a 50/50 room service cost split", indicates some form of progress. However, media has also been told to brace for a long night, and not to expect a deal by the end of it. And as I'm typing this, A. Sherrod Blakely tweets about how there is "Lots of positivity that a deal will get done." ...

It has become clear that these meetings are no longer any indication of progress, with Stern's 'ultimate' deadline expiring hours ago. The main thing the press room is concerned about right now, if we're to believe twitter, is what to ask for in terms of food & drinks while awaiting meeting's end.

Perhaps it's time for a PB&J for us too?

Smiling a bitter smile at the owner of the store, I told him that my girlfriend and I weren't in there to buy anything, but rather to assess the bias shown in the store's window. In passing I noticed some basketball caps, mainly black and red ones, boring. But what stood out was that Lakers cap, in purple and yellow. No green, at all, but several Heat caps.

The owners group and Stern are right. They will make way more money if they change the system and split the revenue differently. But it's not fair on the players. They are the product, and are being treated "unfairly". So what side should we root for? For the side that's right, or the side that's fair? It's highly doubtful any of us still care at this point. We want our game back, because life is dull without it. Visiting CelticsBlog on a daily base, we crave something other than that weekly roller-coaster ride with the "progress" highs and the "cancellation" lows.

We love our ball club, and without a steady flow of green clothed athletes prancing around on a hardwood floor, we get itchy. Itchy, and sometimes a wee bit frustrated, annoyed or even agitated.

"Insulted", the word I used to describe my feelings about not seeing our Leprechaun, or even our clover in that window. It was a wee bit strong, but I managed a smile that made it seem an innocent joke. It wasn't though, but it wasn't his fault either, or whoever managed to decorate a storefront with nothing but Miami & LA caps.

*sigh*

Free agency better start soon.

After a 16 hour chat, today's NBA Labor Meeting concluded conclusion-less with a big old "to be concluded". It's hard to put a finger on where this is going; whether they're ironing out details, or trying really hard to get even slightly closer to each other, but at the very least it shows that they're trying.

Both sides have been asked not to comment publicly, according to league spokesman Tim Frank, or, in Billy Hunter's words: "we have a gag order."

The meeting will resume tomorrow, or rather, later on today. 10am Eastern.

... I remember "Peninsula is Mightier" from before you had LeBron and Bosh. It used to be a lot more fun to read here, and hang around.

You guys used to talk basketball, but now 50% of the game threads consists of whining about refs, talking about how superior your team is, and plain aggression. Talk about how someone should "deck" this player, how that other player should get his "teeth knocked out", and more of those kinds of silly posts.

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Obviously the off season isn't half done yet, but with the big names landed on, well, mainly on the heat, we can already get a feel of how successful teams have been. Matt O'Brien of SB Nation wrote a free agency report card which has The Green getting a B+ for the acquisition of Jermaine O'Neal and resigning free agents Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

Unfortunately we missed out on a few names, and much still needs to be done, but how would you grade free agency / our off-season so far?

Bart, my ex-colleague

Just this month, one of my favorite colleagues left our company. He was, amongst other things, the guy I went to for career advice, social media & online marketing questions and when I wanted a quick laugh. If I'd have to associate some words with his personality, I'd go for 'witty', 'intelligent' and 'professional'. I've learned a great deal from him, and I will really miss the fella.

However, if you'd ask 20 of my colleagues to discribe his personality, I think there's a few other words that will score well. Words like 'vocal', 'assertive' and 'critical'. Do you know that person that, when in a meeting, or when talking to a group, will always speak his mind, honest and -more importantly- uncensored? That's him.

And in a way, I think he's a lot like us; the Celtic fan base.

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There was light

Trembling ever so slightly, I plugged the power cord into the socket. I gritted my teeth, slighty cringing at what was about to happen. There was no doubt in my mind that this could have only gone horribly wrong. Luckily, the only failure on my part was thinking that I had failed.

Green light lit up my living room, by design granting my TV- stand a Jumbotron look. One might argue the Jumbotronlike appearance, but as overseas expressions of fandom go, this is as close as you will get. I relaxed, and a smile spread across my face, slowly turning into a grin, and then into laughter. Like a scientist gone mad, I laughed and raised my hands to the ceiling; at that moment I knew I was ready for the NBA season.

Home

Michael Jordan. Space Jam. NBA. That's about as many basketball-related words an average Dutch person knows. The Netherlands (also called "Holland", just to keep things interesting) is a small country where about 16.5 million people go about their daily lives whilst attempting to dodge the many (and very cold) spells of rain. If we're lucky, we can get in about 40 days of playground hoops a year. Being a basketball fan over here, is like being an ear-tugging fan in America: you'll only get to see it if you pay for that one sports channel that broadcasts 3 totally random games a week. Actually, they cut NBA broadcasting down to one game a week recently. I canceled my subscription and am now forced to use a more costly NBA league pass to catch my weekly dose of Boston. It's been well worth it.

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A topic of conversation since he joined the ballclub, Rajon Rondo's jumper has made Celtic fans all over the world lose their fillings (grinding your teeth does that.). This post is a quick look into the improvements our starting point has made.

We will not go into the exact details like amounts, percentages and spots, because we don't really need those to judge his shot. Rajon has been taking a few more of them at different times. His shot selection has improved a bit, and even though he's still hesitant every now and then, he's actually been more and more willing to pull up and fire. There's no real need to elaborate why it's imperative that he works on all of this, because by now everyone knows that our opponents seem willing to base their defense around forcing our quicksilver floor leader to take shots.

Luckily, he's improved a lot, though I'm not sure "luckily" is the right word for this. He has been training long and hard on this part of his game, and we're seeing the results. There's two major improvements that I've noticed, form and consistency.

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