As folks in the one-to-one service business will tell you, those customers who customarily complain a lot will begin with, “You know I’m not one to complain but …”

Well, I’m in the me-to-you service industry and I am one to complain. Shoot, I’d estimate that 80 percent of my pay is predicated on complaints … as if I need to tell you.

And my sustaining complaint is that so much of what sports fans must endure to continue even marginal interest is an exercise in top-down and poorly disguised con artistry.

This third edition of the in-season NBA Cup — the first two winners, the Lakers and Bucks, were then catapulted to lose in the first round of the NBA playoffs — was a clunky invention by commissioner Adam Silver to try to artificially generate attention, à la some European soccer leagues. The Association has since entered into a partnership with United Arab Emirates Muslim-law sheikdoms with oil money to burn — hence “Emirates NBA Cup” — because the NBA bows down to anyone who can make it a buck, from partnering in sucker-bet gambling to the Chinese Communist Party.