Apathy is sometimes described as the opposite of love. If that is the case, the NBA might be in trouble.
As the NBA lockout rages toward its 100th day, one question continues to come to mind: Does anyone care?
To be exact, today is the 98th day since the lockout began on July 1, but who’s counting?
No, really … is anyone?
Maybe it’s that everyone is too enthralled by the NFL to notice or care that the NBA is missing. But less than a month before the season is scheduled to begin, it is clear the two sides have made very little progress in their
collective-bargaining discussions.
The owners want a hard salary cap, as opposed to the soft cap now in place. The players want the cap to remain unchanged. The owners also want a bigger piece of the financial pie, something the players do not want to give up.
When NBA owners locked out the players three months ago, all of the sports world’s focus was on the NFL lockout. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter camped outside the labor meeting halls, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s face was a mainstay on SportsCenter.
Though NFL Players’ Association executive director DeMaurice Smith became a household name, his NBA counterpart, Billy Hunter, might be better known as a former NFL wide receiver.
During the summer, the NFL lockout was often the lead story on ESPN.com. Now, the NBA is lucky to be listed among a dozen NFL blurbs. And the rare basketball story is probably about Kobe Bryant playing overseas anyway.
Maybe it’s just an Ohio thing. Maybe we’ve just decided it would be best for the Cavs to add an additional draft pick and year of practice before retaking the court.
Or maybe we just cannot bear another lockout, so we’re ignoring it as long as we have the NFL.
Maybe we just want another year to pass without LeBron James winning a championship.
Have the super teams that have been assembled in major markets alienated small-market fans?
Whatever it is, something is different about this lockout from what took place in the NFL three months ago.
NFL fans made their displeasure of the lockout known by showering Goodell with boos as he stepped to the podium at the NFL Draft. But for the most part, fans have remained silent about the NBA’s labor dispute — what might be an ominous sign for Commissioner David Stern.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Like a bad girlfriend you can’t get over and keep going back to, football fans will always return to the NFL, no matter what the league throws at them.
When the NFL lockout ended Aug. 6, fans welcomed the league back with open arms.
That is not the case with the NBA. That love affair between the league and the fans just clearly does not exist.
If the NBA is losing fans now, how many more will be lost in a month or a year?
When Stern and Hunter sit down at the negotiating table, they need to realize that their biggest foe is not the person sitting across the table but the lack of concern from fans and media alike.
Rob Ogden is a senior studying journalism and assistant sports editor of The Post. Are you counting? Let him know at ro137807@ohiou.edu.
