This Just In: No One Cares About the NBA Lockout

It seems like you have to look closely for it to even find NBA lockout headlines. As far as I can see, the World Series, college football analysis, and college basketball predictions all take up more space and gain more attention than NBA negotiations between players and owners. Two weeks into the would-have-been season, Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully put it like this: "I speak for many fans when I offer this warning: We're not coming back."

Count me among those fans. Although, admittedly, I haven't been much of an NBA fan since Michael Jordan retired for the third time in 2003. Guess Kobe Bryant and LeBron James don't really do it for me, for whatever reason. And that's from a hoosier who grew up playing, watching, and loving basketball. The college game isn't "pure" by any means, but it seems, at the very least, so much more interesting than the NBA. Who wouldn't rather fill out an NCAA tournament bracket and catch four games in a day than they would to suffer through two straight NBA playoff match-ups? Much less actually pay money to fill a seat.

Tully goes on to make the insightful point that low-income workers like bartenders and waitresses--whose very income depends on crowds gathering to watch games--probably don't have much sympathy for the plus or minus a million dollars that go toward So-and-So's contract extension.

We often label American politicians "out of touch" with the every-day realities of most people. I suppose many of them probably are. But what about professional athletes, coaches, and owners? They're probably even more out of touch because they don't rely on winning elections every few years. They are like the rich and powerful dictator with no term limits.

They can lock out for the rest of my life, for all I care.