To most people, this so-called labor struggle bears great resemblance to what Agent Hollywood negotiates for Kevin Costner’s next western, on down the line to the guy making scale for getting shot off the roof. Besides, people have their priorities. The Kardashians, for example, and the union ought to know; Nets forward Kris Humphries is married to one.

“My father used to tell me, ‘You are never going to win the public over, and the sooner you realize it, the better off you are,’ “ said Marc Fleisher, son of Larry, who was the N.B.A.’s first major union power broker in the 1960s. “He used to say, ‘This is about one thing, and that thing is leverage.’ “

Marc Fleisher, a longtime agent whose business is based primarily in Europe, was on the telephone to say that he had just heard Charles Barkley assert on television that the players don’t stand a chance in a protracted standoff because they have no leverage.

“And that’s sad because they should,” Fleisher said.

But it was too late for the implied magic bullet of union decertification to save the season’s first 100 games and perhaps many more from disappearing like the championship rings that were supposed to adorn the fingers of Wade and his two best buddies in Miami last spring.

It was too late for a more proactive strategy that might have allowed the players to avoid the financial trap press of no paycheck.