Although the lockout sucks, there's one good thing that's come out of it.

How about the following idea/fantasy?

Players get together (including some non-NBA players) and assemble city teams. Players represent their hometowns, and some promotional dude/dudette then schedules a single-elimination tournament.

One event like this would NOT be hard to put together, and it would be so much fun, for the players and fans alike. You could probably even put together a one-off television contract for it.

Imagine Houston versus Los Angeles, New York versus Chicago, and so on. Maybe you would have eight teams total, three simple rounds. Low risk, low wear-and-tear on the players.