“Anything that’s good for the city of Louisville is good for our state. I believe (the NBA) is good for the city of Louisville, which makes our state even better.”

John Calipari made the remark last December.

First, in grand scheme time, Kentucky’s coach has lived here for roughly 15 minutes and doesn’t remember the Kentucky Colonels (1967-76).

Second, his remark was a not-so-subtle dig at Rick Pitino who had said earlier, rightly, that basketball fans in Kentucky, over the long hall, would not pay NBA ticket prices.

Third, in lieu of the latest NBA lockout numbers you’re about to read below, Calipari is allowed an OOPS! Step up, Cal.

Kentucky ties to the NBA – administrators (Pat Riley) to coaches (Dwane Casey and Frank Vogel) to 21 players, not including 2011 draftees – the Bluegrass state is much represented in the league. UK has 14, Louisville five, and Western Kentucky two.

By the grace of basketball gods and Louisville attorney J. Bruce Miller’s failed mission, our Commonwealth has been spared an NBA franchise. An ESPN report last weekend reflects why Kentuckians don’t want one.

• “Basketball-related income and total NBA player compensation each increased by 4.8 percent this past season,” the report said.

• Average NBA player salary last season was $5.15 million.

While you received a one to two per cent cost of living increase at work (maybe), and Social Security check recipients have been frozen for two years, NBA player salaries increased 16 per cent during the most recent six year Collective Bargaining Agreement.

• Total player compensation during that contract: $2.1 billion.

• Team owners? A franchise is a high profile toy and/or tax shelter for rich men (see Mark Cuban). Few have a clue or care about Americans looking for jobs nor politicians squabbling over debt ceiling and jockeying to be re-elected.

I hope the NBA lockout continues into infinity, drives Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and their pals to Europe and the Turkish League en masse.

From the best hotels and hostels in Istanbul and points east, men who make their fortunes wearing shorts and sneakers, slam a ball into a hoop, will gain a new perspective.

Meanwhile, we can expect a laudible OOPS from John Calipari at any moment, right?

America. I love this place.

CRANK UP CABLE

The rabid element of University of Kentucky football fans with no access to tickets, refuse to pay the going price, or live beyond our 120 counties, have six weeks. Time enough to crank up your cable television, make sure ESPNU is on the menu.

The Wildcats’ first three games – Western Kentucky, Central Michigan, home opener; and Louisville, will be telecast by ESPNU.

Eastern time: UK-WKU kick off is 9:15 in Nashville; Central Michigan at noon; UK-Louisville at 7 p.m.

UK’s home opening foe Central Michigan will have played South Carolina State Sept. 1. The Chippewas come off a three-win season and lost eight of their last nine games in 2010.

COCHRAN A SENIOR?

Russ Cochran popped in six birdies, shot a five-under 67 on the last day to hold off Tom Watson and win the British Senior Open at the weekend.

Senior? Cochran? Boggles the mind. Seems only a handful of summers ago it seems, the Paducah native and UK golfer was a fuzzy-faced kid.

This week he brings home a new trophy along with $310,000. Russ Cochran is 52.

JON HOOD

UK’s Jon Hood suffered a torn anterior cruciate injury last week. “No time table on his return,” UK said. Upside? The lay-off and rehab could mean a red-shirt year for the junior-to-be. Time for Hood to add 15 pound to two years experience, let the former Mr. Basketball be a Jeff Sheppard-like factor for 2012-13.

READERS (RIGHT) WRITE

About the Japan-USA women’s World Cup final last week.

Jerry Crabtree: “I think all America felt the bitter sting of defeat Sunday afternoon (myself included), but I have to admit a part of me saw a higher justice being served. It was not that our ladies lost the match, Japan won it! … The U.S. made mistakes and Japan capitalized. Simple as that.

“This sport I love so dearly lacks fairness in a way no other sport compares. How often does an American football, basketball or even baseball team completely dominate a contest and ultimately come out on the wrong side of winning? Certainly Penalty Kicks are not the answer to decide such monumental struggles, but for now it does and we have to live with the consequences.”

Crabtree is in his third year as girls soccer coach at Elizabethtown High.

WORTH REPEATING

Media 101. New York Jets quarterback Eli Manning turned media expert recently, telling Sports Illustrated, “… part of the media world now. You have to be able to create some controversy and make headlines. Overly praising someone is not as interesting. It’s like, ‘All right, that’s fine–now give me the gossip.’ ”

Clearly, Manning skipped Media 101. Must’ve been out of the country during years media types stumbled over their tongues going ga-ga over Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods and LeBron James, and the list goes on and on.

PARTING SHOT

With cheaters Bruce Pearl, Lane Kiffin in mind, and Jim Tressel’s look-the-other way approach to NCAA violations at Ohio State, an attorney told an ESPN Magazine reporter: “Coaches often psychologically justify wrongdoing to themselves. They know that everybody cheats.”

And so it goes.

Sports In Kentucky appears in community newspapers across Kentucky. You can reach Bob Watkins at Sprtsinky@aol.com