Dwayne Wade chewed out David Stern.

The league is threatening to cancel games.

Both sides are leery about a 50/50 split on revenue.

Players are bolting to play ball in foreign countries.

After the best NBA season since Jordan retired in 1998 the league did exactly what it did when Jordan retired in 1998…locked out the players. The circumstances surrounding the everlasting NBA lockout paint a picture of greedy players and uneasy owners. But, you know what? I don’t care. I simply don’t care about the bickering or the entitlement or the threats. I care about basketball. I care about Kevin Durant scoring 66 points at Rucker Park, I care about seeing the Celtics get one more chance on the court this season, I care about the scoring machine that is the Golden State Nuggets, and I really care about the Heat losing.

On the court last season, the NBA finally found an identity post-Jordan. In the 90’s Jordan was the NBA, able to make everything seem better (e.g. Luc Longley, New York Knicks). Then, in the 00’s we looked for that singular, individualistic magic again; in the forms of Kobe Bryant, Harold Miner, Vince Carter, and Lebron James to name a few. But guess where we all found the magic? In the aging and hungry Celtics and Mavericks. In the young, upstart SoonerSonics and Grizzlies. In the vilified super-teams like Miami and New York.

The magic of the NBA exists within the intrigue and drama, the ebb and flow of its teams playing basketball, that’s it.

Here’s to hoping I’m not the only one that figured this out.