The National Basketball Association is no closer to working out its labor issues. Instead, things have actually taken a major turn for the worse.

NBA players are planning to dissolve their union which will pave the way for an antitrust lawsuit. Going to court not only jeopardizes the current season but could possibly drag into 2012 and endanger next year’s licensed basketball games.

Sports gamers are used to publishers shutting down servers after a couple of years. When Madden 12 hits stores, I soon expect a gentle nudge to stop playing Madden 10 online. EA shut that server down in August 2011, right before Madden 12′s release. 2K Sports earned the ire of its online community by announcing it would shut down NBA 2K11 servers this month. Yes, the game that released this time last year. The timing couldn’t be worse, as NBA 2K12 is under fire for a substandard online experience. After much outcry, 2K Sports announced it would extend the NBA 2K11 server life until April 2012.

Real world labor negotiations have been playing havoc on sports video games in 2011. Madden NFL 12 had the National Football League lockout to deal with. The National Basketball Association has locked its players out as well. NBA 2K12 won’t be able to include rookies drafted in 2011 until the league’s labor problems are fixed. Once the lockout is done with, the rookies can enter the game through a roster update. 2K Sports has the players, their season starting ratings and commentary about them ready to go for that update. The only thing holding 2K up is the lockout. Right now, there’s little progress on that front.

NBA 2K11 was a huge critical and commercial success for 2K Sports, due in no small part to the inclusion of Michael Jordan. His involvement wasn’t just in name. The game also featured the Jordan Challenges, which asked players to recreate some of the greatest moments in his career. 2K Sports has announced three separate covers for NBA 2K12, featuring Jordan, Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird. The Jordan Challenges concept has now expanded to the NBA’s Greatest Mode. You’ll have to relive great achievements from the careers of 15 basketball legends including Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. After doing those challenges, you unlock the players and teams to use in other modes.

Kobe Bryant made an appearance at the Sony press conference to demo 2K Sports’ NBA 2K12.

The latest installment in the 2K franchise will be implementing motion control with the Playstation Move. This will allow Move users to point at a given teammate and with the push of a button, allow them to pass, steal, rebound and defend against their opponents.

Free Realms is now a little more sporty. I’m not talking about the Soccer Star job, I’m talking about a new addition to the cash shop. It seems Sony Online Entertainment knows that basketball fans can be quite devoted to their favorite teams and players, and has decided to provide an avatar update. If you don’t mind spending real money, you could get replicas of NBA jerseys for your avatar to wear…

EA Sports’ basketball simulation reboot is having a harder time getting onto the court than oft-injured Portland Trail Blazers draft pick Greg Oden.

Mixed in with EA’s press release about NBA Jam On Fire Edition was a “we hope you don’t notice this” quote about EA’s basketball simulation franchise. EA Sports President Peter Moore confirmed that EA will release its next basketball sim in 2012. That means EA is taking a two-year hiatus from releasing an NBA sim.

The National Basketball Association had a ridiculous amount of activity leading up to the February 18, 2011, trade deadline. 2K Sports’ most recent update to critically-acclaimed NBA 2K11 takes care of all the blockbuster trades that went down. For example, Kendrick Perkins is now part of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Deron Williams is a New Jersey Net and Baron Davis is a Cleveland Cavalier. (I am so sorry for you, Baron).

The season’s biggest trade, Carmelo Anthony going to the New York Knicks, was in a previous update. This should shake up online play quite a bit.

NBA Elite 11‘s console release was delayed after the demo exposed multiple problems in the basketball sim. Among them was the ability to drain hook shots from virtually anywhere on the court.

Joystiq reports that NBA Elite 11 will still get an iPhone and iPod touch release in October 2010.

A few weeks ago 2K Sports announced that Michael Jordan will be on the box art of NBA 2K11. Now the developer has revealed that not only can people who want to be like Mike play as him, but there is a whole mode in the game devoted to His Airness.