"Players can dunk their way through All-Star games. Lawyers can file lawsuits and bill clients. David Stern, commissioner of a league with no games, and Billy Hunter, leader of a union downgraded to a trade association, can spew sound bites and blame one another.

The NBA is in its "nuclear winter" of discontent. Coaches and general managers and all those who answer to them can fill their time trashing their plans for the season that might never come to begin the painfully slow process of preparing for the next season.

For the Rockets, the potential demolition of the 2011-12 season could change everything."