The NBA is at risk of losing the 2011-12 season if the Player's Association and the league's owners can't come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement. They still have a lot of time to get get the kinks worked out, but there's a chasm separating the expectations of the players and owners right now. It's a money grab on all sides, and the saddest part of the whole situation is that the one group a lock out would affect more than the owners or players would be the fans.

The NBA is in the midst of its most exciting season since the late '90s. With all of the big-name player movement in free agency this past offseason, the NBA has once again become a personality-driven league, harkening back to the 80s and 90s heydays of Michael Jordan, Earvin Johnson, Isaiah Thomas, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, and the like. Players have become the focus again in the NBA. Teams are once again defined by their stars, and that, in turn, has made teams larger than the reality of their parts. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Derek Rose, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, and other exciting young stars are captivating a new wave of NBA fans.

Tragically, the excitement being established in this landmark season will be muffled and weakened if the owners choose to force the players into a lockout. James, Wade, and Chris Bosh's championship march would be put on hold; Griffin would miss the second of his three seasons in the NBA; and, most importantly, fantasy basketball wouldn't be there for all of us to wile away hours of our work week dissecting our teams and sending out absurd trades in the hope that we catch one of our friends reviewing their team in a late-night drunken stupor.

Where could we go for fantasy basketball needs without the NBA next season? Would we all start playing NCAA basketball leagues; if the WNBA were still running, would a WNBA fantasy empire rise; or would we see league hosting sites run the current leagues using European players?

What did fantasy hockey players do during the lockout?