2011 NBA Lockout: The Washington Wizards Won't Recover Fans Lost by Lockout

So after 149 nauseating—I mean, heart-pounding—days, the knuckleheads who run the NBA finally agreed to a tentative deal with the players and ended the lockout.

Balance has officially been restored to the universe, the sun shines a little brighter—but no one in the Washington, DC metro area seems to give a damn. Just because the Wizards' season is not lost does not mean that cherry blossoms will bloom out of turn or that fans will come out and show their support.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but the lockout—and the subsequent posturing by the owners and players alike—has done the opposite for the Wizards. It has made them irrelevant.

In a city with many sports franchises, and many other forms of entertainment, the Wizards are a second-rate option. They cannot sell out their own arena unless star-studded teams come into town.

Washington is first and foremost a football town. Even though the Redskins put out a perpetually disappointing product year after year, the fans continue to show up and support their Hogs.

Even the Washington Capitals, who just made a coaching change, sell out nearly every game and have a loyal following.

I had the good fortune to attend a Foo Fighters concert a month ago at the Verizon Center, and there was more energy and passion in the building for that one night than I have seen at Wizards games in the last three years.      

The Wizards did have the No. 1 pick in John Wall two years ago. While Wall is a great young talent, he doesn’t have the ability to captivate the casual fan the way Chris Webber did when he was patrolling the district during the 90's.

Even Gilbert Arenas had the city abuzz for awhile when he was draining half-court shots. That was before he starting losing ligaments and making the locker room and team flights seem like episodes of The Wire.

There is no doubt that Wall has all the tools to eventually fill the seats back up, but until the Wizards find a way to surround him with appropriate talent, they will wallow in a wasteland of mediocrity.

The sad part is not that the city was prepared to endure a lost season, it’s the fact that no one seems to care.