With the NBA apparently headed for a Christmas tip-off, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and other stars Sunday scrapped a four-game charity tour planned to keep them busy during the lockout. The “Homecoming Tour” was to open in James' hometown of Akron, Ohio, on Dec. 1. But the stars changed gears after Saturday's announcement that the league and its players had reached a “tentative agreement” to end the lockout, hopefully in time for training camps to open on Dec. 9 and a shortened season to start on Dec. 25. “We are thrilled that a tentative agreement has been reached and are looking forward to getting back to work and playing basketball,” Wade said in a statement. “We all want to reconnect with our teams to make sure we hit the ground running when training camps are expected to open on Dec. 9. Our commitment to helping children and the communities doesn't stop, and the daily work of our foundations to do just this will continue, as always.” James and Wade, along with Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, had lined up games in Akron, New Orleans, Chicago and East Rutherford, New Jersey, all to benefit their charitable foundations. NBA owners and players, and their lawyers, still have plenty of work to do in the coming days to bring the lockout to an official close and get a shortened, 66-game season underway. If the NBA and its players ratify a new contract in time play on Christmas Day, a shortened season would run through April 26 and require each team to play at least one stretch of games on three consecutive nights. The NBA posted an outline of a possible schedule “assuming the season tips off on Christmas” on its website Sunday. The plan is a 66-game regular season, ending some 10 days later than usual. The last possible end date for the NBA finals would be June 26, a fortnight later than the title series ended last June. Teams would play 48 games within their conference and 18 non-conference games. No team would play on three straight nights more than three times, but all teams would do so at least once.
