I have never been a huge fan of the National Basketball Association.

I would watch portions of a few regular season games each year and then a little bit more of the playoffs. I rarely if ever sat through a whole game.

So I really don't miss the NBA. I prefer college basketball. Of all sports to watch on TV, I like college hoops the best. I guess it's because the players are still students - albeit pampered, full-ride scholarship students. Most of the players in college never will play in the NBA. They're in it mainly because they really love to play. I bet most of them would play for nothing if they had to.

Compare and contrast that to the guys in the NBA. These guys are making zillions of dollars and are still complaining they aren't getting a big enough cut.

I think college basketball is more of a team sport. The NBA is like watching five simultaneous games of one-on-one. Seems like there's more coaching strategy in college, too. In the NBA, it seems like the players run the team, not the coach. The coach is more like a cheerleader.

And the greatest spectacle in sports has to be the NCAA tournament.

Every year I am amazed at how many down-to-the-wire games there are. I just like college basketball a lot better than the NBA.

So it is fascinating - and a little comical - to me to see the NBA players and owners self-destruct.

I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of the NBA's labor problems. But I know one thing for sure. Some of what I'm hearing boggles my mind.

Of course it all boils down to money - and a little thing called a salary cap.

Right now, there is a salary cap of $29.6 million in the NBA, believe it or not. But it's what's called a "soft cap." That basically means there are big loopholes. Big enough to drive a Michael Jordan contract through. The biggest loophole is called the "Larry Bird exception." (I don't know why they call it that, really.) That says teams can sign their own free agents without the amount of the contract counting against the cap limit. That's how Jordan can sign for $33 million for one year of hoops even though his team's salary cap is $29.6 million.

Neat, huh?

The current cap dates all the way back to 1983 when players' salaries were tied to league revenues in a complex revenue sharing agreement.

That pact allowed for 53 percent of league revenues to be paid to players in the form of salary. An agreement reached in 1995 allowed the owners to renegotiate the agreement if salaries rose above 52 percent of revenues.

Last year, the owners and the league claim salaries reached 57 percent of revenues. Time to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.

The NBA locked out the players until a new agreement could be reached.

The players union filed an unfair labor practices suit against the NBA.

Then they dropped the suit and started negotiating. All they have to do is come up with an agreement. Problem is, they can't agree.

The owners would like a hard salary cap. The players wouldn't.

The players dispute that 57 percent of revenues went to salaries. They say the owners cook the books.

The owners say there are teams losing money. The players say that's hooey.

The players also say - and this is really rich - they aren't responsible for the league making money and they shouldn't be penalized for the owners' foolish contract offers. In other words, the owners are seeking a salary cap to protect them from themselves.

Agents for NBA players say that what the owners are offering is just a plain old bad deal.

So after months of haggling, here's the bad deal. The projected percentage of basketball-related income paid to players in 1998-99 would be 57 percent. That percentage would fall gradually through the 2004-05 season to 53.5 percent. Meanwhile, based on projected revenue increases, the average player salary would go from $3 million to $4,983,000 during the same time period. The salary cap would go from $31 million to $55 million. The owners gave up on the idea of a hard cap. This still would be a soft cap with the Larry Bird exception in effect.

Pretty bad, eh?

It would seem that in an industry where the average employee makes $3 million a year you could come up with a way to get people back to work. I'd hate to be off the job for long, wouldn't you? But not these guys.

Here's a quote from NBA commissioner David Stern. He made the comment during a Tuesday press conference.

"If we and our players, who are ultimately going to have to work together to rebuild this sport, can't make this deal, I don't think there is that much hope for the sport itself."

How about that? They can't make a deal. Not much hope for the sport itself. This squabbling over money may kill the sport? Unbelievable.

Maybe Stern is being a bit melodramatic. Maybe things aren't as bad as he says. But remember, the season is wasting away. The best guess of the experts is that the players and owners stand to lose somewhere around $1.5 billion if the season is a wash. That's billion with a 'B.'

I wonder if and when they do manage to settle the whole mess if the fans will welcome the game - and increased ticket prices - with open arms. I sure hope not.

The more I think about it, the less I miss the NBA. [[In-content Ad]]