WHAT IF you held a lockout and hardly anyone cared?
That's what the National Basketball Association is finding out right now.
It has been nearly 2 1/2 months since the owners locked the players out on June 30 and the NBA effectively stopped doing business, but it's barely registered a ripple on the sports radar.
On those rare occasions when someone has actually mentioned the NBA, the general consensus has been, "Who cares? We'll see you if you get back."
Most people seem resigned to the idea the 2011-12 NBA season will be shortened and actually could be canceled. But the general public doesn't appear to be all that distressed.
On Tuesday, NBA officials and representatives of the NBA Players Association met for what were termed critical meetings if training camps were going to open on time on Oct. 3 and the regular season was going to start as scheduled on Nov. 1.
The talks went so well that NBA commissioner David Stern suggested that it was best to scrap yesterday's scheduled negotiating session so the two sides could step away from each other.
"We're a bit pessimistic and discouraged at one, the ability to start on time, and we're not so sure that there may not be further damages or delay trying to get the season started," players association executive director Billy Hunter said.
But the NBA's real problem is how little interest its failed negotiating session garnered. It wasn't the lead to any sports sections. It didn't generate any buzz on sports talk radio.
Compare that reaction to the ones that went on before the NFL ended its lockout. Commissioner Roger Goodell and players association executive director DeMaurice Smith could barely make a move without a bevy of reporters being right there in their faces.
Even the most remote rumor of a move in negotiations was pursued aggressively and fed to an eager fan base waiting for the return of our true national pastime.
And on Aug. 6 when Goodell and Smith signed the agreement ending the lockout, the NFL was welcomed back with loving arms. There was no public backlash. It was as though the previous 18 1/2 weeks had never happened.
The NBA doesn't have that kind of reverence. The NFL is treated like a "need" by the American sports public. The NBA is not. When you hear people say missing an entire season might actually be good for the NBA, you get the feeling they mean it.
