Columnist Dean Juipe: NBA fans will forgive and forget

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

Someone has to go first and test the hostile waters.

So here it is: Welcome back, NBA.

Many will find it an unpopular opinion. Some have already said as much, claiming the league deserves a cold shoulder at least for the duration of its 1999 schedule if not for eternity.

They're still acting peeved after a 204-day lockout that officially concluded Thursday. They're saying the league and its callous players and owners no longer deserve the fans' support.

They're planning on their own little boycott, refusing to attend or watch NBA games or concern themselves with the personalities.

But here's a prediction: They'll come around, eventually if not immediately. Anyone who was interested in the league as recently as a year ago is not going to permanently turn his or her back on the sport forever -- even if Michael Jordan has retired.

The NBA is, after all, the top level of basketball in the world. And basketball is a huge spectator and participation sport in this country.

You can immerse yourself in all the college games you want and cheer heartily for your alma mater, but it's the NBA with the cream of the crop. The fact that money issues resulted in a six-month work stoppage was unfortunate and regrettable, yet it's hardly abnormal in this day and age of sports/labor strife.

The NBA was the last of the major sports to have a season interrupted by a labor dispute. In every other case, the fans slowly but surely made their way back to the games despite their initial reluctance to make a commitment.

They forgave and forgot, and in the NBA's case it may be easier than usual to excuse the loss of one-third of the season. That's because of the condensed free-agent signing period and the fact virtually every team in the league is completely revamping its roster for a season that's set to begin Feb. 5.

What used to take months -- the wooing and signing of free agents; the training camps and exhibition games -- has been reduced to a very small window. The result: Clusters of NBA stories in the papers and on TV relating to such all-important details as who's playing for what team.

Some of these teams are going to be almost unrecognizable. For instance, for a few minutes Thursday the Phoenix Suns were down to two players under contract.

With 200 free agents available, that's an oversized deck of players the NBA is shuffling. More so than ever before, teams can quickly become formidable or be reduced to shambles based on decisions they will make in these next few days.

Those decisions -- and that lengthy transactions list in today's paper -- are creating interest in the league. That interest level should continue to escalate once the games begin and their importance is magnified by the shortening of the schedule to 50 games.

The fans will come back and they may even be anxious to see how this free-agent free-for-all plays out.

Of course there will be pockets of resistance and empty seats. But the league and its players will make a few goodwill gestures and at some point in the not too distant future the NBA lockout will fall into the "bygones be bygones" collection of indifference.

You'll see. You'll soften, even if it's more amusing and conversational to tell your friends you won't.

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