Detroit ? The NBA can’t be as self-destructive as other sports, can it?

Never underestimate the power of ego to bury every last shred of common sense, especially if you think you’re the driving force in the hammer-nail relationship.

“In the NBA, there’s no such thing as having a hammer,” deputy commissioner Russ Granik assured me before Thursday’s Pistons-Indiana game. “The players can’t earn their $1.6 billion in salaries without the owners, and the owners can’t put on a season without the players. Everybody knows the mutual destructive ability that exists.”

Sounds all nice and sweet, doesn’t it?

Granik insists the league won’t negotiate a collective-bargaining agreement through the media, but that’s exactly what the league is doing.

The NBA owners are on the campaign trail, seeking out every available camera and microphone, chastising the players for pushing another professional sport perilously close to a lockout.

The strategy is comparable to what we’ve seen in other sports recently. The commissioners do hold the hammer, and they aren’t bashful about swinging freely.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig came down with a rare case of foresight – no doubt a 24-hour virus-when he seized the high ground in the steroids controversy. Selig is pushing for an even more strenuous policy and has put the baseball players’ union on the defensive.

The hockey stalemate continues while commissioner Gary Bettman assures the players that the revenue pie steadily will shrink the longer the NHL lockout continues. Both sides met again Friday after a 14-hour bargaining session the previous day.

Speculation is that fissures have emerged in the NHL players’ solidarity. They’re feeling the squeeze around their necks. If a deal isn’t struck by month’s end, we’re probably looking at another breakdown in negotiations, which might last until fall – or longer.

And now there are cracks in the amity between NBA owners and players. The league charged the players’ association with backtracking on its word, suggesting that union leadership has become a puppet of agents who want to regain influence they lost when the current collective-bargaining agreement was brokered six years ago. The players don’t envision a bull’s-eye on their backs – just yet.

“Something has to be worked out; I know that much,” said Pistons guard Lindsey Hunter. “I don’t think as players that we feel that the owners have us under the gun or whatever. It’s just a matter that we’ve got to get a deal in place that’s feasible for everybody.”

Painting the NBA player as an enemy has become much easier in recent months. Players have charged into the stands and refused to honor their contracts while lamenting the difficulties of making ends meet at home on only $11 million a year.

“You would like for our sport not to be tarnished that way because of all the other things going on,” Hunter said. “You at least have got basketball that you can kind of rely on right now.”