NEW YORK (AFP) – LeBron James will not make any slam dunks for the Miami Heat this November. Kobe Bryant will make no baskets for the Los Angeles Lakers. Dirk Nowitzki will score no points for the Dallas Mavericks.

These superstars, and every other NBA player, have been silenced by the billionaire team owners who sign their paycheques in a lockout that will reach its 124th day on Tuesday, when the NBA season was supposed to have started.

Unable to agree on how to divide about US$4 billion (S$4.96 billion) in annual revenues since the old contract expired and a lockout began on July 1, sides broke off talks on Friday with no new negotiations scheduled.

NBA commissioner David Stern has called off 221 games that were scheduled in November and with a month needed between a final deal and the opening tip-off, the first shortened NBA season since 1999 figures to become shorter.

Read More: Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers

The 2011-2012 NBA schedule was released on Tuesday, despite the NBA lockout currently in its third week. Opening week of the (fingers crossed) ’11-12 campaign includes four national TV double-headers, with three teams — the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and, somewhat oddly, Portland Trail Blazers – featured twice each.

The Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls begin the schedule on Tuesday, November 1, meeting up at the American Airlines Center in Big D. The Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder will match up in the second game of TNT’s double-header that day.

On Wednesday, ESPN takes over TV duties as the Miami Heat visit the New York Knicks and Lakers visit the Golden State Warriors, starring former ESPN analyst Mark Jackson. (Let’s make sure Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy work the late game, OK?)

TNT has its regular Thursday double-header, and it gets a couple of division rivalries: the Orlando Magic visit the Miami Heat, and the Portland Trail Blazers take on the Denver Nuggets. (NBA.com’s schedule currently lists Magic-Heat as a League Pass game and Utah Jazz-Memphis Grizzlies as a 9 p.m. TNT game, but that has to be wrong.)

ESPN’s Friday double-header features the Boston Celtics visiting the Atlanta Hawks, and Blazers visiting Blake Griffin and the Los Angeles Clippers.

The NBA has no national TV games (except for a couple of NBA TV games) on opening weekend.

In the hours before meeting with the media to discuss his decision to retire after 19 NBA seasons, Shaquille O’Neal thanked the Los Angeles Lakers for planning to retire his No. 34, said he won’t pursue a coaching career in the league and likely will have Achilles tendon surgery.

O’Neal, 39, was interviewed Friday on ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike in the Morning” in the lead-up to his afternoon news conference from his Orlando, Fla., home. He announced his retirement Wednesday.

“I would like to thank the Laker organization for thinking of me,” said O’Neal, adding he spoke Thursday with Lakers owner Jerry Buss and vice president Jeannie Buss.

Asked if he would one day go into coaching, O’Neal said, laughing, “No way. If I had to deal with players like me I wouldn’t make it as a coach.”

A larger-than-life personality, O’Neal retires with career averages of 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.3 blocks per game on 58.2 percent shooting, but his numbers jumped to 27 points, 11.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.5 blocks in 514 regular-season games played in Los Angeles.

One of the game’s greatest centers considers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the best to ever play the position. And, excluding himself from the conversation, O’Neal considers Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson to be among the top five centers of all time.

“Just to have my name mentioned next to those guys is a blessing,” O’Neal said.

Before O’Neal won three championships with the Lakers and one with the Miami Heat, he was a franchise-saver when the Orlando Magic made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1992 draft out of LSU.

He took them from the lottery to the playoffs in two years, and then led them to the NBA Finals in his third year before they were swept by the Houston Rockets.

O’Neal then signed with the Lakers in 1996 and had his greatest success there, winning three titles alongside Kobe Bryant and coach Phil Jackson.

But amid tension between O’Neal and Bryant over credit for the team’s success, O’Neal was traded to the Heat in summer 2004, fresh off a loss to the Detroit Pistons in the Finals.

After his run in Miami, he played two seasons with the Phoenix Suns and one with the Cleveland Cavaliers, then signed a two-year contract with the Boston Celtics last summer.

A persistent Achilles injury, however, prevented him from fulfilling the terms of the deal. He played in only two of Boston’s final 35 regular-season games.

If he does have surgery, O’Neal said he would take time to heal before launching the next phase of his business career. His body of work included rap records, movies, a lengthy business portfolio and an even lengthier history of philanthropic deeds.

“A professor at LSU once told me, ‘Big guys don’t sell.’ I wanted to dispel that,” he said. “I’ve always been a class clown. Everything you see with me is real.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

I think the post Los Angeles Lakers career of Shaquille O’Neil really has hurt his overall legacy. Especially given the contentious post LA relationship of Shaq and Kobe Bryant. I think the way that all of that went down really turned off a lot of Lakers fans to Shaq. Some fans have a hard time remembering that when Shaq was with the Lakers he was an almost unstoppable force. Without a doubt one of the best players in the NBA, and he helped that team win three NBA championships.

Given all that, I was sort of surprised that the Lakers have already announced that they will retire the #34 in Shaq’s honor. Granted it is the right thing to do without a doubt but I still think a large portion of Lakers fans who are Kobe fanatics will not like that the team has already made this decision.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I think this team will wait until Kobe is no longer on their roster before paying Shaq this ultimate respect. While the Lakers are doing the right thing I think the Orland Magic should immediately retire Shaq’s #32 as that franchise likely would not have survived had Shaq not become a superstar and put them on the map.

Since Shaq also played for the Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston Celtics we could debate if any of those teams should retire Shaq’s number as well. I think we could make a case that the Heat should, but beyond that we would be getting into the ridiculous. Since he only won one title in Miami I don’t think they will.