A first major step has been taken to the cancellation of the 2011-12 NBA season.

Friday the NBA announced that they would indefinitely postpone training camps as well as cancel 43 preseason games due to the ongoing NBA lockout.

All games between October 9th through the 15th have been cancelled while training camps were suppose to start on October 3rd.

“We have regretfully reached the point on the calendar where we are not able to open training camps on time and need to cancel the first week of preseason games,” Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “We will make further decisions as warranted.”

If an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement isn’t reached by the end of the month or very early October the preseason games after October 15th could very well be cancelled too.

In 1998 the NBA scrapped all preseason games and the season was reduced to 50 games. That was the only time in the league’s history that games were lost.

It’s believed that in order for regular season games to not be affected by the lockout, a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement will need to be reached by mid October.

Re: Associated Press