Sitting in my dorm room on a lazy Sunday afternoon on the last day of February, I have to be honest: there isn't much to write about in the world of sports.
I mean, after all, the NFL season is four weeks past and opening day for baseball is still five weeks away. However, there is something that is worthy of print, as pessimistic as it may sound. The question is, unless you're from Sacramento, San Antonio, Los Angeles or Minnesota, is there even a reason to keep watching the NBA? I'm not even talking about being in the Greater Boston area, tolerating a team that not only lost one of its best coaches ever, not to mention 13 of their past 15 games. Being two games away from the 2002 NBA Finals seems two decades ago for a franchise that has gone from one of the Eastern Conference's top teams to what looks like a perennial lottery pick contender.
Let's talk about the rest of the NBA for a moment. It seems to me that the dominance that the Western Conference has over the Eastern Conference is similar to the imbalance between the Cowboys, 49ers and the rest of the NFL in the early and mid-90's. It's kind of like seeing a movie you've already seen before, because everyone knows the L.A. Lakers, if healthy, are going to win the NBA Finals and if they don't then San Antonio, Sacramento or Minnesota will.
Think about it for a second, a team with four future hall of famers, two of which are in the prime of their career, should win the championship. John Carroll could even coach that team to a championship. And I believe they will despite nagging injuries to Karl Malone andsome chemistry problems. But as I said the next three best teams in the Western Conference San Antonio, Sacramento or Minnesota, would easily beat any of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, whether it be Detroit, Indiana or the resurgent New Jersey Nets.
Maybe the NBA should do what the NFL does for the championship by having one game decide it. I could see the Nets or Pistons potentially knocking off one of the West superpowers, however in a best of seven game series the better team will and always does win. Will the Western winner really have a challenge? I'm not trying to discount the efforts of the Pistons to acquire players such as Rasheed Wallace at the trading deadline or the Nets' run with new coach Lawrence Frank, but unless players such as Shaq, Kobe, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan switch conferences, you can count on a victory parade in sunny California, the Lone Star State or in The Twin Cities.
All right, so winning the championship isn't the only thing that matters in sports. So why not just watch professional basketball for fun? The NBA and its players are making it hard for the fans to have fun watching games both live and on TV. With scores frequently in the mid 60's and 70's and with a total lack of a fastbreak and explosive offenses, it is nearly impossible to watch an entire NBA game. Furthermore, with constant news about violence, drug problems and other legal issues among the NBA players, not to mention employee number eight in Los Angeles, it is difficult to watch and root for many of these athletes.
I'm not saying that other sports don't have their issues on and off the field, but there are clearly hard times for the NBA right now. Who knows maybe Lebron and Carmelo will be the next Bird and Magic and in five years the league will again be popular as it was in the '80's and early '90's. But as for now, players should stay in college for all four, maybe even five, six, seven.. years as college basketball is clearly the most appealing basketball around.
Oh and by the way as I have been writing this article, I am watching the Celtics defeat the Toronto Raptors for the second time in three days. February's an exciting month in sports, huh?