Ric Bucher's post on Basketball | Latest updates on Sulia

Days continue to pass and the Billy Hunter story continues to quietly blip on the radar, visible and yet largely

ignored. I'd like to think it's because the enormity of it is too hard to fully comprehend, but I suspect it's because the players don't want to admit they blindly followed and supported a man who not only presided over a lockout that cost them 20 percent of their wages last season and hundreds of millions for the next six years, but did so while indulging a host of other improprieties so embarrassing his only defense is that they weren't illegal. As if unethical, grossly ill-advised and self-serving pass muster. What, firing his relatives and severing business ties makes the fact that they were employees and business partners in the first place OK? Why take those measures if what had been going on -- FOR YEARS -- wasn't egregious? I'd like to feign astonishment that it's not a major topic of conversation, especially with the All-Star Game just around the corner, but the apathy and ignorance among players when it comes to their collective bargaining is as great now as it's ever been. Perhaps the players are being quiet because the biggest among them, who like to present themselves as savvy businessmen, made a point of acting as if they were involved and informed last year and the revelations about Hunter mean either they didn't know what was going on or didn't care. Not until the executive committee consists of players other than end-of-the-benchers or veterans in the twilight of their careers and there isn't an inherent distrust in having cutthroat negotiators -- no matter what their skin color -- serve as the union's representatives, the players will continue to lose and lose big whenever they have to negotiate with the owners. On second thought, maybe it's right that this sad saga is not getting any pub; if the players don't care about protecting their collective interests, why should anybody else?