A few weeks ago, I turned to the world of professional
basketball for the subject of this column. I believe the title was
something like
”
Basketball the way it ought to be
”
and it focused on how the NBA seems to be coming out of its
post-Jordan funk.
A few weeks ago, I turned to the world of professional basketball for the subject of this column. I believe the title was something like “Basketball the way it ought to be” and it focused on how the NBA seems to be coming out of its post-Jordan funk.
I’m still feeling much better about the NBA today than I was two or three years ago and I was very much looking forward to an exciting series in the Finals this year.
But on Monday, when the Detroit Pistons eliminated the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, I started looking forward to next season’s Finals.
Think of the sound a needle makes as it slides across a record with the volume turned way up. That’s the best I can come up with to convey my total disappointment in this season’s Finals matchup.
Spurs vs. Pistons? Sounds like a real snoozer to me.
Ever since my favorite team, the Seattle Supersonics, was eliminated by the Spurs earlier in the playoffs, I had been rooting for a Suns vs. Heat showdown for the trophy. And I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed that commissioner David Stern and his cronies didn’t see to it that this year’s Finals featured two up-tempo and exciting teams instead of a pair of squads mired in boring ol’ fundamentals.
Fundamentals be damned. I want Dwayne Wade dunks and no-look passes from Steve Nash, along with some rim rattling-putbacks from the likes of Amare Stoudamire and Shaquille O’Neill.
I mean, what’s going on here? Everybody knows that the two teams that make it into the Finals are hand-picked by the league, just ask Rasheed Wallace. So, how did San Antonio and Detroit make it in?
I expected more from David Stern and his conspiracy crew.
Okay, okay. Tim Duncan is great. Tony Parker is great. The same goes for Manu Ginobili, Ben Wallace, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Darko Milicic.
Err, scratch that last one.
So, there’s obviously going to be some talent on display in this year’s Finals but this matchup isn’t going to draw nearly as much attention as a Phoenix-Miami showdown would have.
Maybe the league is trying to build a dynasty here. The Spurs won it in 2003 and the Pistons took the title last season so I guess it’s possible that the league got together with officials to make sure that boring basketball takes its place in the history books.
Whatever the case may be, I will probably end up watching most or all of this year’s Finals as I still believe that the NBA is on the road back to greatness.
I just hope I don’t get fined for anything you just read.
