Having already been subjected this offseason to “The Decision” — that narcissistic, indulgent one-hour special in which LeBron James and Jim Gray demonstrated how much ESPN was willing to sacrifice its journalistic standards — and now learning that the NBA has decided to reveal its marquee games on the upcoming 2010-11 season schedule during a one-hour special, well, it just seems too soon. I think we need a longer buffer period between one-hour specials, to help us heal from the sickening spectacle of the previous one.

The aforementioned one-hour special, in which the NBA will reveal the matchups for opening week, Christmas Day and the Jan. 17 Martin Luther King Holiday, is today at 4 p.m. on NBA TV. At least this special isn’t on ESPN. Recognizing the kind of programming the NBA has on its league-owned channel right now (mostly playoff game repeats), I can understand the need for something new, something live.

The rest of the NBA schedule will be released sometime in the next couple weeks. It’s unclear to me how NBA TV will fill an entire hour with the revelation of nine games (four on opening night, five on Christmas Day, one on Martin Luther King Day). I presume it will be much like “The Decision,” about five minutes of actual news and 55 minutes of fluffy analysis.

The sad thing is I’m interested enough to see if the NBA will torture Cleveland fans by having the Heat visit the Cavaliers on Christmas Day, that I’ll probably tune in.

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