Why the NBA sucks today

[MetroStyles]

Yes, the NBA has better parity and more great teams with a chance to win than ever before. The West playoffs should be ridiculously competitive, and the East will be very interesting with the Magic, Hawks, and Celtics posing a threat to Cleveland. What's more, the days of the West being the automatic winner in the finals are over.

All that said, the problem with the NBA today is that lack of epic rivalries. The old Lakers-Celtics, the Bulls-Knicks, Knicks-Pacers, Knicks-Heat, Celtics-Pistons.

Those were the days when the same two teams would make it to the conference/NBA finals for years in a row and develop that bad blood. Brawls, elbows, blood, hard physical play and you couldn't help but feel the hate between the teams. So while today's NBA is incredibly competitive, and will yield several great playoff games, for some reason that bloodthirsty rivalry has not surfaced.

I think the main problem is that no two teams have really grown up alongside each other and peaked at the same time. It looked like Lakers-Celtics II had a chance, but the Celtics are growing old too fast and are fading after only one great postseason series. I think that if Lebron resigns with the Cavs, there is a chance that Cleveland-Orlando becomes epic. But Orlando will have to remain dominant for another 4-5 years to keep up with the Cavs, and probably meet in at least 2-3 more conference finals.

What are your thoughts on the current state of NBA rivalries and which ones are most likely to develop over time? I should point out that I really mean rivalries between dominant teams, not local rivalries or those that continue exist only because of historical bad blood.

EDIT: I think the most recent rivalry was probably Dallas-Phoenix, but with neither team being able to win it all, it lessened it a bit. Another short-lived but good rivalry was LA-Sacramento. But again, these were brief and have not really been serious for at least 5 years.

 

[ConcernedParent]

I walked in here expecting a rant about how no one plays basketball how its supposed to be played- why white players are superior because they make up for their lack of supreme athleticism with good fundamentals and unselfish play.

 

[MetroStyles]

Originally Posted by ConcernedParent

I walked in here expecting a rant about how no one plays basketball how its supposed to be played- why white players are superior because they make up for their lack of supreme athleticism with good fundamentals and unselfish play.
Who do you think I am, Mike Krzyzewski?

 

[trader]

The NBA is rigged.

Stern doesn't want to see the Raptors succeed and retain Bosh. So after the Raptors had the 2nd best record in the NBA leading up to the All-Star game from December (2nd only to the Cavs), Stern ordered the Griz to take out Bosh in the first game back. It was all downhill from there.

And when the Raps and Bulls were battling for the last playoff spot, Stern paid Jamison 2 million to elbow Bosh in the face, fracturing it and ending his season. And when it came down to the final game of the season between the Bulls and Bobcats, a game in which if the Bulls had lost after playing a back to back to the Celtics they would have been in 9th and the Raptors in 8th. But instead Stern gives a wink to his lovechild MJ, and MJ gives a wink to Larry Brown, and LB gives a wink to his players and he ends up benching his starters in a winnable game even though he made a big deal to the media about how he's going to play his team hard because he doesn't want to mess with playoff standings (he was referring to the Cavs who played LBJ 38 minutes against the Raptors and the next game benched him against the Bulls). Righhttttt.

And then there was a two way tie between the Raptors and some team for the 12th draw in the lottery this year. Guess who loses? It was probably MJ who flipped the coin too after getting a wink from Stern.

**** the NBA. Stern wants to move the Raptors to Nashville.

 

[trader]

Originally Posted by ConcernedParent

I walked in here expecting a rant about how no one plays basketball how its supposed to be played- why white players are superior because they make up for their lack of supreme athleticism with good fundamentals and unselfish play.

http://whitebasketball.blogspot.com/

 

[MetroStyles]

Originally Posted by trader

The NBA is rigged.

Stern doesn't want to see the Raptors succeed and retain Bosh. So after the Raptors had the 2nd best record in the NBA leading up to the All-Star game from December (2nd only to the Cavs), Stern ordered the Griz to take out Bosh in the first game back. It was all downhill from there.

And when the Raps and Bulls were battling for the last playoff spot, Stern paid Jamison 2 million to elbow Bosh in the face, fracturing it and ending his season. And when it came down to the final game of the season between the Bulls and Bobcats, a game in which if the Bulls had lost after playing a back to back to the Celtics they would have been in 9th and the Raptors in 8th. But instead Stern gives a wink to his lovechild MJ, and MJ gives a wink to Larry Brown, and LB gives a wink to his players and he ends up benching his starters in a winnable game even though he made a big deal to the media about how he's going to play his team hard because he doesn't want to mess with playoff standings (he was referring to the Cavs who played LBJ 38 minutes against the Raptors and the next game benched him against the Bulls). Righhttttt.

And then there was a two way tie between the Raptors and some team for the 12th draw in the lottery this year. Guess who loses? It was probably MJ who flipped the coin too after getting a wink from Stern.

**** the NBA. Stern wants to move the Raptors to Nashville.

Dude, the refs give preferential calls, sure, but you are taking this way too far. Just sounds like you are bitter about Bosh leaving.

 

[trader]

My friend works at a large bank which I can't disclose and she monitors large wire transfers for fraud and such. 3 days before that game she saw a transfer of 2 million dollars go from Nrets Divad to Nosimaj Nwatna

 

[HRoi]

Originally Posted by trader

3 days before that game she saw a transfer of 2 million dollars go from Nrets Divad to Nosimaj Nwatna
is that the new Russian owner of the Nets and one of his "business associates"?

 

[airblaster503]

The NBA sucks because of its officiating. Watching the Bulls Cavs game yesterday was sickening at how the Bulls weren't getting any calls in their favor. The NBA is rigged, they are going to do whatever they can to get LeBron into the finals and get a ring. It is stupid how the Cavs could play aggressive on defense and get away with fouls, but when the Bulls played the same way there was always a whistle. I understand not all calls are going to be called right in a game, but when it is blatantly going in favor of another team it becomes unwatchable.

 

[dragon8]

The NBA sucks because everyone is a primadonna. Back when Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Dr. J no one person hogged the spotlight. Their respective teams were solid all around and no one was all about ME.

 

[Mark from Plano]

The NBA is the only major sport, college or pro, that I give a **** about anymore.

 

[Steve B.]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

Yes, the NBA has better parity and more great teams with a chance to win than ever before. The West playoffs should be ridiculously competitive, and the East will be very interesting with the Magic, Hawks, and Celtics posing a threat to Cleveland. What's more, the days of the West being the automatic winner in the finals are over.

All that said, the problem with the NBA today is that lack of epic rivalries. The old Lakers-Celtics, the Bulls-Knicks, Knicks-Pacers, Knicks-Heat, Celtics-Pistons.

Those were the days when the same two teams would make it to the conference/NBA finals for years in a row and develop that bad blood. Brawls, elbows, blood, hard physical play and you couldn't help but feel the hate between the teams. So while today's NBA is incredibly competitive, and will yield several great playoff games, for some reason that bloodthirsty rivalry has not surfaced.

I think the main problem is that no two teams have really grown up alongside each other and peaked at the same time. It looked like Lakers-Celtics II had a chance, but the Celtics are growing old too fast and are fading after only one great postseason series. I think that if Lebron resigns with the Cavs, there is a chance that Cleveland-Orlando becomes epic. But Orlando will have to remain dominant for another 4-5 years to keep up with the Cavs, and probably meet in at least 2-3 more conference finals.

What are your thoughts on the current state of NBA rivalries and which ones are most likely to develop over time? I should point out that I really mean rivalries between dominant teams, not local rivalries or those that continue exist only because of historical bad blood.

EDIT: I think the most recent rivalry was probably Dallas-Phoenix, but with neither team being able to win it all, it lessened it a bit. Another short-lived but good rivalry was LA-Sacramento. But again, these were brief and have not really been serious for at least 5 years.

What about the Spurs/Mavericks?

 

[Don Carlos]

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

Yes, the NBA has better parity and more great teams with a chance to win than ever before. The West playoffs should be ridiculously competitive, and the East will be very interesting with the Magic, Hawks, and Celtics posing a threat to Cleveland. What's more, the days of the West being the automatic winner in the finals are over.

All that said, the problem with the NBA today is that lack of epic rivalries. The old Lakers-Celtics, the Bulls-Knicks, Knicks-Pacers, Knicks-Heat, Celtics-Pistons.

Half the reason why we don't see as many epic rivalries these days is because of the first point you made: the league is better balanced and all-around competitive across the various teams. Epic rivalries tended to emerge when you had two or three teams in the entire league who were an order of magnitude better than all the other teams, and thus, could be reasonably assured of facing off against each other in the playoffs or finals year after year. Look at the classic Lakers-Celtics rivalry of the '80s, for example. That rivalry was based on a lot of factors, but arguably the most important was that those two teams were almost always going to the finals against each other.

These days, with few exceptions, there aren't wildly imbalanced "superteams" that consistently make it to the finals every year. We have some teams that are always guaranteed at least to make it to the playoffs, and we have a few teams who are clear favorites at the outset of any given season. But we don't have dynasties like we used to, because the talent is more evenly spread across the league.

I'm divided as to whether or not this is a good thing. As a die-hard Lakers fan, I do miss the good old days of Lakers vs. Celtics. That said, my team still manages to do alright, so I have no complaints.

 

[Mark from Plano]

Go Mavs!!!

 

[BDC2823]

I think a big part of MS's statement has to do with free agency. Rarely do you have players staying on the same team for years, let alone a core of players staying together for years. The faces are constantly changing so it's hard to get a real rivalry growing. Even with the recent Lakers-Celtics semi rivalry, really only Kobe, Fisher, and possibly Odom and Pierce have been together for any length of time. Gasol, Garnett, and Allen all have only been with their team for a couple years and the latter 2 are on the downside of their careers.