Dear NBA: Who Are You Again?

Oh yeah. There is a professional basketball league above the D-League and the CBA in this country. I had forgotten.

Well, I hadn't really forgotten. It's hard to forget with all the coverage about a lack of progress in negotiations between the NBA players and owners. There are rumors of players playing abroad--and sometimes more than rumors: Deron Williams of the Jazz is playing in Turkey and former St. Mary's star and Portland guard Patty Mills just signed to play in China. Once again, the American consumer and worker--in the form of fans and ticket office employees, concessionaires, etc--are brought face to face with the scourge of outsourcing. At least in this case, the owners of the businesses are not profiting from the outsourcing.

But I have kind of forgotten about the NBA, which I don't think is going to be an uncommon response. Last year, I was saying to Vaughn that I would really like to check out a Golden State Warriors game, since they play right there in Oakland next to a Bart station. This year, until an article in today's paper, I had completely forgotten whom the Warriors drafted in the most recent draft--for the record, they drafted Klay Thompson and Jeremy Tyler. I had forgotten that the new owners fired Keith Smart and hired Mark Jackson.

So many questions that could be answered, but won't be until if and when the players and owners decide that yes, they WOULD like to make a living from a game: did the Warriors make the Smart choice in changing coaches? Will Coach Jackson make his Mark in the Bay Area?

Better hurry up, NBA, before we decide we just don't care anymore. More specifically, take this as a warning that we may soon no longer care enough to offer warnings like this one.

Thoughts? Opinions? Anyone care to guess whether the NBA has a season this year? And if the NBA does have a season and no one cares enough to watch, does it make a sound?