Recently Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant's agent said the young star would consider playing overseas if the NBA lockout continues to linger, adding his name to a list of stars that includes New Jersey Nets guard Deron Williams and is sure to grow if the work stoppage persists.
In my opinion stars who consider playing overseas publicly are only hurling idle threats at the NBA's owners, since a lost NBA regular season has the potential to kill the NBA as we know it.
America's love affair with the NBA is much more fragile than similar relationships with the NFL and MLB, as professional basketball players are usually viewed as the most spoiled and over-paid athletes by the general public.
Basketball players are also in a more exclusive club since teams have fewer players than professional football and baseball, and it's always easier to identify with a sport that you may have had an opportunity to play.
Fans love to marvel at the skill and athleticism of today's NBA players, but many of those same fans actually had the chance to play football or baseball at least on the high school level and that generates a level of interest basketball can never match.
Younger stars like Durant and Williams defecting to Europe could turn novice fans away from the NBA, but they are also both young enough to play a role in what is sure to be a long revival for the league if the 2011-12 season is lost.
But for an aging star like Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant a lost season is much harder to replace at this stage in his career, and there is a possibility that playing overseas could diminish his career as a Laker.
Bryant has not been as vocal as some of his peers about the prospects of playing elsewhere if the lockout continues to linger, but he has contemplated about playing in Europe in the past.
I can appreciate a player's desire to stay in game shape, and competing in Europe or somewhere else professionally certainly does serve that purpose. But one of the most important things about Bryant's legacy is connected to the uniform he has worn throughout his career.
Each one of Bryant's glowing accomplishments has been achieved as a member of the Lakers, and to some old school fans that exclusivity makes a world of difference.
For instance, there are some fans who consider Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be one of the top two NBA players of all time, but there are few Lakers fans who would consider Kareem as the top player in the franchise's history.
That designation usually goes to Magic Johnson or Jerry West, two hall of fame players who were also life-long Lakers.
Both West and Magic were great players by any measure, but the fact that they spent their entire career with Los Angeles elevates them to near mythical status in the hearts of Lakers fans.
To be fair Kareem is also loved dearly by Lakers fans, but the fact that he started his career in Milwaukee is not lost on those who bleed purple and gold.
The same applies for center Shaquille O'Neal who may have erased any good feelings from leading the Lakers to three consecutive championships in 2000-02 by retiring as a member of the hated Boston Celtics.
Bryant is already the leading scorer in franchise history, and he has won five NBA championships to go along with numerous other individual awards and accolades and he has done it all with one team.
Those accomplishments alone place Bryant in the same rarefied air with Magic and West, but how will history remember Bryant if he does decide to play overseas during the lockout?
Even worse, what if the last image anyone has of Bryant on a basketball court is in the uniform of a team that is not easily recognized by the casual NBA fan?
It's not a likely proposition, but the threat of injury does make it a possibility that if Bryant does decide to play overseas he might never step onto a NBA court as a player again.
If the lockout does continue to drag on there are some players who may carry through on their threats to take their talents overseas, and if the NBA does face another work stoppage during the season fans may be slower to return the next time around.
Eventually the beauty of the game will lure us back, but there are some fans who will never forget the players who did choose to play in Europe instead of focusing on saving the NBA.
For a player like Bryant that type of notoriety could over-shadow what has been a spectacular career in Los Angeles, and that's certainly not the final memory anyone wants from what could be history's greatest Laker.
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