Like many of you, I just finished watching all three days of the NBA's annual All Star Weekend. I was thrilled by the soaring dunks, awed at the smooth three pointers, and maybe a little bit disturbed at the total and complete lack of defensive effort. Seriously, I think my mother could have scored double figures during that Rookies vs. Sophomores Game. Still, there's little denying that when it comes to putting on a show, the NBA has it figured out better than any other sport. Sure, the Super Bowl is indisputably a staple of American pop culture, but in terms of sheer entertainment value, it's hard to compete with the NBA's annual three day extravaganza. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a die hard NBA fan, but I doubt it.

Not everyone feels this way, of course. Some even say the NBA is on a decline as a business and a cultural force, despite the popularity of events like All Star Weekend. Since the retirement of a trio of league-saving superstars named Jordan, Bird, and Johnson, many fans have voiced their disillusionment with the direction of the sport. Many blame the me-first personalities of the players for driving fans away. Others think the shift from team-centric fundamental 'Hoosiers'-style basketball to the isolationist "dunk/3 pointer"-based game has made fans less interested, thus hurting the NBA's bottom line.

And then there are those like The Daily Beast columnist Buzz Bissinger, who think the league's losses (financial and otherwise) are skin deep -- as in caused by the skin color of the African American players. His recent piece published on Business Insider called "Here's The Real Reason The NBA Is Losing Fans" is a case study in what happens when an armchair, out of touch "fan" tries to make race the culprit for why white fans allegedly aren't feelin' The Association anymore:

The NBA is in trouble and I don't think there is much dispute about that. Attendance was down last year and is slightly down so far this season. Although basketball is supposed to be a team game, it has become more one-on-one in the NBA than a boxing match. The style has changed and it is a definite turnoff.

But a major problem with the NBA, one that is virtually never spoken about honestly, is the issue of race. I have no hard-core evidence. But based on my past experience in writing about sports, I know that whites ascribe very different characteristics to black athletes than they do white ones. I also make a habit of asking every white sports fan I know whether they watch the NBA. In virtually every instance, they say they once watched the game but no longer do. When I ask them if it has anything to do with the racial composition, they do their best to look indignant. But my guess is they felt very differently about the game when Larry Bird and John Stockton were playing.

It boils down to this: Are whites losing interest in a game in which the number of white American players not only continues to dwindle, but no longer features a superstar?

I don't think talking about any of this makes me a racist. I believe it makes me a realist. White fans want white superstars, or in the case of the NBA, at least one white American superstar. Unless the ghosts of Bird and John Havlicek and Jerry West return to the floor, that isn't going to happen. And since it isn't going to happen, the NBA will continue to struggle with an identity crisis that no one wants to publicly acknowledge.

Bissinger goes on to lazily assert that without marquee, American-born, white NBA players, the league doesn't give white fans anyone to "relate" to, thus alienating a large swath of the potential ticket buying public. Additionally, he seems to make the argument that the NBA's attendance problem mainly due to this lack of a white star, and that the league is doomed as a result.

BS. I call total and complete BS.

While it's true that average NBA attendance is down slightly over the last couple of years, there's a perfectly logical explanation for this. Bissinger's obviously been under a rock since 2008, or he might have noticed a small thing called the recession, which has lead to a similar slide in attendance in the beloved NFL (the lowest since 1998), Major League Baseball (the lowest level since 2003), and the NHL. In short, when people have less money to spend, they tend to watch from home rather than drop a few hundred dollars on a single night out. I've yet to hear anyone attribute those leagues' shrinking business revenues to race.

Beyond that is the comical assertion that white people simply won't pay to see people who don't look like them play basketball. As a guy who has attended NBA games in roughly two thirds of the league's arenas, I find this idea borderline outrageous. I've yet to go to an NBA game where the majority of the crowd wasn't white. This is the case whether you're in DC, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, or Toronto. The Utah Jazz, despite fielding a team of mostly black stars (Deron Williams, Al Jefferson, and Paul Milsap for example) average roughly the same attendance as they did during the glory days of Stockton and Malone. The Boston Celtics don't have a single American born white player in their rotation, but their building is filled to virtually the same capacity as is was during the Bird-lead championship times of the 80's. Last year's Lakers/Celtics series garnered the league its best ratings in nearly a decade. The league pulls in roughly a billion dollars each year for national broadcast rights. The Lakers just signed a multi-year deal worth a reported $3 Billion for their local broadcast rights.

Does this sound like a league that White America has abandoned? I don't think so.

If Bissinger's right about something, it's that there are indeed fewer American-born white stars. Minnesota's Kevin Love is an All-Star rebounding machine and a pure joy for this hoops purist to watch, but he plays on a godawful team. Indiana's Tyler Hansbrough was a college star struggling to adapt to a faster-paced NBA team. Guys like Kirk Hinrich, Mike Miller, David Lee, and Chris Kaman once looked like potential stars, but have settled into the less glamorous position of role player as their careers developed. There really isn't a white American-born player that I'd purposely pay to see, and I suspect most white fans feel the same.

But guess what, that's fine. Basketball, despite arguments to the contrary, is still a team game. Lebron James needs Miller to hit timely corner 3's. John Wall needs Hinrich's mentorship. Kobe Bryant needs Luke Walton to wave towels. Just because most of the NBA's stars are black doesn't mean that the sport as a whole can only be enjoyed and appreciated by blacks. That's just an insane, and yes, borderline racist assertion. And to blame black players for the economic decline of a game when everything in America has faced a decline is just plain enraging.

The league certainly isn't without fault. There are too many teams and not enough good players. The current trend of star players colluding to create Super Teams is discouraging. The season is about 10 games too long. The lengthy playoff schedule clearly is geared to maximize TV ratings to the detriment of the game itself. The looming lockout will likely mean some missed games next season.

Yes, the NBA does have problems. The lack of good white players is the least of them. Writers like Bissinger really say more about themselves than the game when they try to blame blacks for financial issues in a sport controlled by owners who are overwhelmingly not African American. Could he really be scapegoating rich black men out of jealously? Possibly. But I am a better writer than that. I wouldn't use my platform to make lengthy, unfounded racial assertions about his business writing motivations.

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Jay Anderson is a freelance writer from Washington, DC, whose work has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR. When he's not busy talking smack here, he runs the award-winning blog AverageBro.com. Follow him via Twitter @AverageBro.