The Front Row with MARK NELKE Nov. 13, 2011

If you watch enough SportsCenter, you'd swear there was an NBA lockout or something.

Could have fooled me - flip around the dial anywhere, and you're bound to find an NBA game somewhere.

NBA Hardwood Classics.

NBA's Greatest Games.

Memorable Playoff Moments.

And on and on.

Even the regional sports networks are showing classic games of their local teams.

The Bulls ... the Knicks ... the Nets.

OK, maybe not the Nets.

IF THE NBA can't settle its squabble anytime soon, I think I could sit through an entire season of replays of the league's greatest games.

Other than the fact we already know the outcome - and who's to say we have a pretty good idea who's going to win the game, even when it's live - the "classic" games are largely more watchable.

The current NBA game has gotten a little more watchable in recent years, with at least some of the players trying to run up and down the floor on the fast break.

And as the defending champion Mavericks proved last spring, it's OK to pass the ball around to the open man, even if he's not as good as you, because he still might be able to make an open jumper.

But there are also the teams who insist on dribbling, dribbling, dribbling, backing their defender down on the dreaded "iso" play, until the shot clock runs low and they have to hoist up some fallaway 23-footer.

Fantastic!

THE OTHER day, I was watching the Hawks and Suns from 1970, with "Pistol" Pete Maravich going up against Connie Hawkins. No. 3-point line, and it looked strange to see them line up for a jump ball to start the second half.

And most of the players actually were able to make their shots. Some would say they didn't play defense in those days; I saw there were more offensive players.

I could watch the 1977 NBA Finals over and over again — at least, Games 3-6, which the Portland Trail Blazers won. I’m sure Sonics fans would love to see more games from their 1979 championship seasons.

They could show the 1984 NBA Finals over and over again as well — the Lakers and the Celtics, where most of the players could score, and the teams actually ran fast breaks. (OK, they could edit out the clotheslining and the fights that broke out back then, when there was little punishment for fighting. That put a little tarnish on the series).

And who wouldn’t want to see more Michael Jordan in his prime, especially during the Bulls’ first three-peat.

IF THE NBA Network or ESPN Classic wanted to get creative, they could show a whole season of “classic” games by date — classic regular-season games, leading up to classic playoff games.

But at that point, to maintain fans’ interest, this is what they could do:

Remember a few years back, when NFL Films staged a “tournament” between the league’s greatest teams. They spliced together film of the teams playing each other, and came up with their own winners and, ultimately, a tournament champion.

Of course, one of the 49er teams won, so I thought it was a great idea. But imagine if the NBA did that, piecing together footage of teams from different eras playing each other, and using whatever data it needed to decide who wins.

I wonder which team would end up as the “virtual” NBA champion?

Could be just as interesting — or perhaps even more interesting — than the current product.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected].