Twenty-five ESPN.com writers e-assembled this week to discuss the viability of various cities as NBA hosts.  American cities such as Seattle, Las Vegas and Kansas City were acknowledged, along with international options such as London, Moscow (!) and Berlin.

Without honorable mention, though, was Louisville, Kentucky.  Since 2000, we have tried to land the Rockets, Grizzlies and then-Hornets, and come up empty each time.  There was even a proposal to acquire an NBA team, re-name it the Colonels (after the former Louisville ABA team), and draw up the logo to advertise Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Sanders’ mug and all.  We are desperate. (I live in Louisville, if you were wondering.)

I present my case through a series of points:

- Louisville is the 29th-largest city in America.  If you count everything within city limits, we’re 17th.

- Kentucky/Indiana is basketball country, as the Universities of Louisville, Indiana, and Kentucky were and still are basketball schools.

- Business First performed a 2004 study and concluded that Louisville is able to support a basketball team.

Based on the amount of total personal income, defined as the sum of all money earned by all residents of an area in a given year, the study concluded that Louisville could, indeed, back an NBA team.

In fact, the report said the city could host a franchise from the National Football League, National Hockey League or Major League Soccer.

- Since this study, the city has commenced construction on a 22,000-seat downtown arena, which would give it a larger capacity than many current NBA arenas.

- We are planning on building this while in the middle of a recession.  We are willing to sell out our future for some short-term excitement.

- Louisville possesses low self-esteem and an inferiority complex.  If the NBA were to move here, it could fleece us on ticket prices and put a sub-par team on the court.  We would respond with nothing but gratitude, because we would never stop fearing that you would leave us.

That last reason has to be more compelling than all others combined.  Come on, National Basketball Association.  Move in and break our hearts.  We’ll simply thank you and drown our sorrows in a ten-year bourbon.