This labor stuff is important -- and in a minute we'll discuss it again here -- but no fun. Not like the e-mail that came across titled, "Where's Svet?''

	Where's Svet? Find Abrosimova's bobblehead doll and win $5,000 in Minnesota.

I opened it anxiously, thinking maybe some fruitcake had lost his/her marbles ala Kathy Bates in "Misery.''

Svet, I'm your BIGGEST FAN!

But it really isn't Svetlana Abrosimova who's missing, thank goodness. It's her bobblehead doll. Actually, it isn't missing, either, but hidden somewhere in the Twin Cities. The Minnesota Lynx are doing a funny promotion; instead of making a few thousand Bobble Svets, they just made one and now some lucky duck will find it and get both the doll and $5,000.

The Lynx are supposed to give clues at games July 1 and July 3 -- Hey, is Bobble Svet in the "Mary Tyler Moore Show'' house? -- and if those aren't enough, they'll be giving more clues on the Internet.

Admittedly, this hardly eliminates the fruitcake factor. Whoever ends up with the doll could be besieged by Svet groupies looking to pull off a trade.

I'll give you the water bottle my friend Morton got from a guy who swears Sue Bird used it for five games her sophomore year before he swiped it, a ticket stub autographed by Tamika Williams and the guy in the Husky dog suit, a little baggie of Rebecca Lobo's hair and a pretty-much authenticated Jennifer Rizzotti knee pad for Bobble Svet.

Reply: Oh come on, dude. Who doesn't already have that stuff??

Which brings us to ... yes, there are nutty women's hoops fans, borderline-nutty fans and capacity-for-nuttiness fans.

And then you have the vast majority of fans: enthusiastic, compassionate, realistic.

They are women and men of all ages and financial backgrounds. Some have children, some don't. They enjoy women's basketball for a variety of reasons, but the common thread seems to be a genuine fondness for the players -- both for how they play the game and how they act as human beings.

These fans go to games and don't make spectacles of themselves. They don't call, shrieking, into talk radio. They have figured out you have to work a little harder to be an informed women's basketball fan, and so they surf the Internet and subscribe to lists and trade game tapes.

There's another thing about these fans. Some of them are really worried. They don't want to lose the WNBA.

They're not inherently pro-bidness, as the great columnist Molly Ivins might say, but they are pro-realism. They don't want a 6-year-old league snatched away from them because of a labor dispute.

As one woman poignantly wrote in an e-mail, "It's truly a wonder to me that we have this league. I never dreamed I would see such a thing. Every season seems like a gift I never dared asked for.''

I think she wrapped up the essence of what those who love women's basketball feel. It was such a long time coming, we missed the prime of so many players' careers. It would be particularly agonizing to lose it now that we finally have it.

By the same token, a few other folks make the point that the NBA is counting on that "fear'' as a major bargaining wedge. And that's certainly true.

Another point that deserves mention: I was in error referring to the NBA players having a "strike'' in 1998. Actually, that was a lockout. The NBA didn't put itself in position of letting the players strike, which they might have done if they'd been allowed to start the season without a collective bargaining agreement. No error about who was perceived to have "won,'' though -- and it wasn't the players.

It stands to reason that the NBA won't allow the WNBA players to strike, either. If the two sides can't come to an agreement before next season, then next season likely won't start.

What are the odds of that? I think a deal will get done. Last week, the strike talk -- albeit prompted a lot by the media -- made the players look bad. This week, the Liberty's boneheaded move of trying to prevent the players from talking to the union's Pam Wheeler at Madison Square Garden made the league look bad.

Maybe everybody can turn it back a notch and try to avoid looking bad for at least a little while now.

One gets the feeling that more players have a good grasp of their economic situation than perhaps would seem evident by their comments or lack thereof.

One former WNBA player e-mailed to say that when she was in the league, she was concerned that some players were not being realistic about their financial goals or concerned enough with the overall long-term viability of the WNBA. Surely, there are current players as thoughtful.

There's a lot of interesting things going on in the WNBA this season, besides Bobble Svet, of course. There's the rise of the Mystics, a team a lot of people have been waiting for to live up to potential. It looks like perfect harmony that the league all-star game will be in D.C. this season.

There's trying to figure out what all went wrong in Detroit, what might be going right in Orlando, what's going to happen with everybody in the West besides the Sparks, who for all practical purposes unmathematically already have clinched a playoff spot.

We don't want to let the labor situation overshadow the on-court stories. But we do have to keep an eye on it. And hope both sides keep in mind those people out there who are buying tickets and watching on TV. Those people who do consider this league "a gift.''

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached at mvoepel@kcstar.com.