It's NBA Lockout deadline day and the floor gleams at Delmar Fieldhouse. Delmar's been freshly moped for the occasion, but there's really no dressing up the light-blue-painted wood bleachers that only stretch up about 40 rows on each side of the gym.

Every seat at Delmar is backless. This Houston Independent School District venue isn't for those with a weak constitution or an inflated sense of VIP status. It's seat yourself, find your own slice of free blue bleacher and sit back . . . er, up . . . and watch the game. The only hints of sponsorship are the rather modest, outdated Coca-Cola signs on the two scoreboards.

Jerry World, this isn't.

It may not be as far as one can get from a 20,000-seat NBA palace pumped with artificial noise and over-caffeinated T-shirt gun-toting team "ambassadors," but it's in the ballpark. Yet, this is where several NBA players have come — including Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's great draft day trade gamble Jonny Flynn — on Wednesday's deadline day. Doomsday, if you listen to NBA commissioner David Stern, who's doing his best to channel Arnold Schwarzenegger circa 1987 during this lockout.

Flynn is there to promote "The Houston Lockout Celebrity Basketball Game," an event dreamed up by John Lucas, the ex-NBA player and coach/substance abuse counselor/hoops Yoda who's long embraced H-Town as his home. Lucas has quietly watched the flurry of grassroots, almost word-of-mouth, charity games crop up around the country (and sometimes the globe) involving the best basketball players in the world.

See LeBron James and Rudy Gay ball in Mississippi! Catch Dwyane Wade shooting hoops in Australia! Check out LaMarcus Aldridge, hardly a household name, sell out a game in Portland!

Enough is enough, Lucas thought. Houston needs its own game.

"I realized that everyone else was doing a game and felt Houston should have one," Lucas says. "Houston's as big as a basketball town as anyplace in the country. Our people should have a chance to see the best players."

It's set to happen Nov. 20, a week from Sunday, unless there's "a miracle resolution" in Lucas' words to the bitter months-long lockout before then. Laugh, laugh. Resolution, now that's a funny thought.

NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant, NBA MVP Derrick Rose, All-Star Russell Westbrook, Dallas Mavericks NBA Finals difference maker Jason Terry, three-time NBA slam dunk champion Nate Robinson and recent ex-Longhorns Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph are all expected to stroll through Delmar's modest doors on Nov. 20. Rose will not be playing. He's coming to take pictures with the local Houston high school scholarship players who are being honored, to provide another thrill in what Lucas expects to be an evening full of them at $25 per ticket.

But everyone else mentioned and more than 20 NBA players overall are expected to play. And play hard.

"This is going to be a real game," Lucas says.

With most celebrity charity games, a statement like that would be good cause for an eye roll. But coming from John Lucas, there's reason to believe. Lucas is something of training guru for many NBA players. He runs them through a grueling program that he dubs The Lab every offseason, getting marquee names to pay him to come sweat in Houston. With everyone required to be in the gym at 8:30 a.m. No exceptions.

Lucas showed up at Delmar Wednesday with three NBA players in tow: Flynn, veteran Mike James and Damion James. He drove the players over himself — just in case anybody from a small media contingent wanted to talk to them.

I attended a "celebrity game" over the summer in Beaumont where Durant showed and no actual game took place. The planet's most explosive player simply ended up shooting baskets on the side for several minutes as kids clamored at the 6-foot-10 man's legs. Boston Celtics all-everything point guard Rajon Rondo sat in the lobby, signing autographs, shoe less.

Things are different with The Guru though. Lucas is determined to turn Houston's game into an event. He's lined up NBA legend Moses Malone and seven-time NBA champion and former Houston Rocket Robert Horry to coach the two teams. He's worked out a deal to get the game broadcast on KCOH 1430 AM with his old teammate Calvin Murphy set to be at the mic.

He scheduled the game during the Houston Texans' one bye week so that quarterback Matt Schaub and wide receiver Andre Johnson, who have already committed to attending, can be part of a big Houston sports night.

Lucas doesn't mess around.

For The Love Of The Game

Houston's game — which will be played in a 5,000-seat gym that the University of Houston outgrew, one that often hosts high school events — continues one unexpected trend of the lockout: Multi-millionaire NBA stars who are often cast by the public and the media as selfish, clueless punks going to great lengths to play the game for free.

The YouTube clips of Durant, the former University of Texas star, putting up 66 points at Harlem's famed Rucker Park and even playing a Halloween flag football game at Oklahoma State have cemented his good guy image like no army of press agents ever could. Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings has turned his obsession with finding a good game into a one-man national barnstorming tour powered by Twitter — and recognized in a long feature in Sports Illustrated.

Every time an NBA star just shows up and plays, the players win another point in the public relations war with Stern and the owners. But the best part about it is that none of it seems contrived. That's why it works.

"I think the fans are realizing how much guys love to play the game," Flynn says.

Flynn knows the score. "I know the fans don't want to hear guys who make a lot of money complaining about making more money."

Lucas says that none of the players in his Houston celebrity game will be paid for appearing. The NBAers will even have to pay for their own travel. The game is only providing "lodging" with the money from ticket sales earmarked to go to charities, including the John Lucas Foundation, which helps athletes dealing with substance abuse problems with aftercare and guidance on everything from eating right to public speaking.

Forget the glitz. And those over-the-top, forced NBA arena dramatics. It's just a game.

"It almost brings me back to the high school days, man," says the 36-year-old James, who knows he has much more pro basketball behind than ahead of him.

James, who is dressed in sweats without an NBA team logo, looks around Delmar. From that shining floor to the top row of those light blue bleachers. It doesn't require a long scan.

"It's a nice gym," he says. "Should be a great place to play."

Before the sun even sets Wednesday, Stern's deadline is basically rendered irrelevant as the players and owners hastily resume talks. NBA Lockout doomsday's come and gone and the players are still balling, setting up another game.

The commissioner never counted on this.

Editor's note: Tickets to The Houston Lockout Celebrity Basketball Game are available for purchase on John Lucas' website and at Northwest Mall (which is across the street from HISD headquarters and the arena), Stereo Live and Serious Sounds.