Spain's gold medal win over France in EuroBasket 2011 may be the last time we seen more than a dozen NBA players in sanctioned basketball action before the start of the 2012 season.

As the intrepid and ever vigilant Ken Berger of CBS Sports so aptly stated, the NBA lockout continues its long march into the fall and the first months of what will likely be an expurgated or totally vacated regular season—if you like depressing yourself check out Berger’s latest slew of columns pertaining to the aforementioned work stoppage.

But there was basketball. Professional basketball. And it was played recently. EuroBasket 2011 is in the books, but with 10 current or former NBA players starting the gold medal game—eight current, two former, and an NBAer here and there on both benches—it seems likely that Spain’s decisive victory over France will be the closest we get to actually NBA action in a long while.

Because of that, I think it might be prudent to spend a little time talking about the tournament and sharing my thoughts. I wasn’t there, of course, and mostly watched France, so my sense of the tournament as a whole is lacking to say the least. I also won’t be breaking down any individual games. For overarching stories and game recaps there are plenty of places to look (Wendell Maxey, Blazersedge, and NBA Playbook). What I’m going to do is present you with some general thoughts I had about the tournament as a whole.

So here we go:

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The President of the NBAPA (Billy Hunter on the left) and the Commissioner of the NBA (David Stern) are locked in a seemingly never ending labor battle, which has now failed to end for going on three months. Photo courtesy of Peachtreehoops.com.

Yesterday, I found myself talking to one of my co-workers who also happens to be a big-time Blazer fan. We were talking about the meeting that was scheduled to take place between the owners and members of the NBPA. From news we’d both gleaned from reputable sources it was beginning to look like progress was being made towards ending the lockout.

My co-Blazer fan and I allowed ourselves a little bit of optimism. For a moment it looked like there was an end in sight, and that the 2011-12 season might actually be saved.

Of course we all know what happened—if you don’t, here’s a brief summation: NOTHING—and here we are. A single day later, and it feels like the possibility of a season has managed to slide further into the distance.

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