One hundred and forty-nine days. That's how long it has taken the NBA players and owners to reach a tentative agreement to end the NBA lockout. One hundred and forty-nine days of shameless and audacious greed. One hundred and forty-nine days that has cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue and affected thousands of arena employees and small businesses.

The fans, devoted as they may be, are not immune to these actions. This past season was one of the most entertaining in recent memory. Television rates and ticket sales steadily increased throughout the year. Then the NBA Finals came, and the veteran, underdog Dallas Mavericks pulled off an upset that the gross majority of NBA fans delighted in. Very few were cheering for the high payroll and high profile Miami Heat superstar trio of Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

But the after effects of the Finals were short-lived, as the lockout quickly moved from rumour to reality.

In the 1998-99 NBA season, a lockout shortened the schedule from 82 to 50 games. That lockout lasted 204 days and the league lost 464 regular season games. In the aftermath, Michael Jordan retired, for the second time, average game attendance took a nosedive across the league, and television ratings dropped for three straight seasons.

In the current state of the American economy and a changing of hands as a new wave of exciting young players transition into the league, it could be argued that this lockout came at a worst time than the last.

Historically, fans don't respond well to lockouts. In 1994-95, Major League Baseball lost their entire season. The expected results followed: attendance plummeted, television ratings dropped and many of the fans that did show up at games did so in protest.

NBA Commissioner David Stern told the press that, "we want to play basketball,” after emerging from a bargaining session that lasted over 15 hours and produced the current, tentative agreement. The fans agree with you, Mr. Stern.

We want to watch basketball and this lockout has prevented us from doing so.

If the league had taken a harder look at their CBA during last season and began the negotiating process months in advance this entire situation could have been avoided.

The short-sightedness of the league and thier desire to turn more profit could come back to haunt them for the next several years.

It's a simple law of cause and effect. At the end of the day, the NBA is a business and like any business it cannot exist without the fans, the consumers.

Denying those fans access to the game and stringing them along as shameless arguments based on greed and selfishness persist is not good business.

As a fan, I hope the NBA is able to recover. But as a consumer, it's a product I am now hesitant to purchase.