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Who's Watching?

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I watch Portland but that's it during the regular season. As for the playoffs, I've caught some of the Dallas-GS series and the Cleveland-Detroit series. I'll probably watch the NBA Finals too mainly because of Lebron and how cool it would be if he could single-handedly bring Cleveland their first NBA title. I'll be watching much more NBA in the future now that it looks like tOSU will be pumping out more and more players.
 
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1. The NBA let travelling get out of hand in the mid-90's, and they refuse to go back. At least ten travels a game are not called.

2. Too many of the players are bulky and muscular compared to the past. While good for their performance, this has detracted from the game's artistry, by and large. Shaq's dominance helped spur this to take place.

3. The personalities aren't intriguing. LeBron, Wade, Nash, Nowitzki, Carmello, Duncan...there are no individuals that the fans really feel like rallying around. Iverson is the closest thing, but he is past his prime, and never did that much with his teams, other than one finals appearance on an otherwise mediocre Sixers team. Kobe would have had a chance, but he's a head case with obvious baggage.

Just some thoughts...I mostly find that the game is nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as it was in the 80's...it was still solid, if not great in the 90's...now it's kind of without an identity.
 
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HabaneroBuck;861083; said:
1. The NBA let travelling get out of hand in the mid-90's, and they refuse to go back. At least ten travels a game are not called..
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Yep... I think they had to let steps go because they gave in to hand checking. They gave in to hand checking because they thought Oscar was going to make a joke out of the game. Oscar would have made a joke out of the game because they had outlawed the zone.

2. Too many of the players are bulky and muscular compared to the past. While good for their performance, this has detracted from the game's artistry, by and large. Shaq's dominance helped spur this to take place.
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No one envisioned a world of 6'8 to 6'10 270 lbs+ men who could run the court.

3. The personalities aren't intriguing. LeBron, Wade, Nash, Nowitzki, Carmello, Duncan...there are no individuals that the fans really feel like rallying around. Iverson is the closest thing, but he is past his prime, and never did that much with his teams, other than one finals appearance on an otherwise mediocre Sixers team. Kobe would have had a chance, but he's a head case with obvious baggage.
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I look at many of the stars of the game and see no one I especially care to know. Iverson is a prime example. A thug by any other name is still a thug.

Just some thoughts...I mostly find that the game is nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as it was in the 80's...it was still solid, if not great in the 90's...now it's kind of without an identity.
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I'd have to go further back than that. I really enjoyed the game as I grew up. I lived a significant part of my life in the old men's gym, down by the power plant, playing pick up games. I really got into the Celtics and the Sixers, Russell and Havlicek vs Greer and Chamberlain. But those teams boxed out on defense, set picks and crashed the boards... they played as teams. Now, what I see looks like a different game. It looks to me like World Federation Wrestling meets Basketball. Too much posturing. Too much hand checking. too much traveling. Showmanship has replaced sportsmanship. Thugs have replaced athletes.

Thanks for throwing your thoughts out there. They helped me think through what it was that I feel about NBA basketball today.
 
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I used to be a big basketball nut back in Jordan's heyday. I'm still really into the sport, as well as loving to play it, but nothing like I used to be. These days, I enjoy watching LeBron play and following the Cavs, but it still lacks the consistency of being really electric as it was back then. It will always take the back seat to a good football game to me these days. Just something about the whole atmosphere which makes football special; the lights, night air, fall weather, the sounds (tOSU band, anyone?) and surroundings of the stadium, combined with seeing my favorite team heading for the endzone. There just isn't anything like it.

Having said that, I'll be watching the Cavs tonight and hoping they can bring a championship home for Ohio this year. I've had to witness all my teams make it the entire way and then lose the title, I'm sick of it. I want OH to bring home the gold this time. The media is grinding on my last nerve with all the talk of Ohio teams not being able to finish what we start.

I'm ready for them to eat their words.
 
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I've watched most of the Cavs games since they drafted Lebron. I guess I'm a bandwagon fan, but I'll only watch if a team is worth watching. I used to watch most of the Bulls games on WGN when Jordan was there.
It seems like the Cavs are big in Cleveland and that's about it. It would be great if Ohio looked at the Cavs as their team, but that is the Buckeyes.
 
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exhawg;862576; said:
I've watched most of the Cavs games since they drafted Lebron. I guess I'm a bandwagon fan, but I'll only watch if a team is worth watching. I used to watch most of the Bulls games on WGN when Jordan was there.
It seems like the Cavs are big in Cleveland and that's about it. It would be great if Ohio looked at the Cavs as their team, but that is the Buckeyes.
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Funny thing about that... I root for any midwest team when they play a coastal team or a team from the south, but I don't find it reciprocated... I first noticed this during the 61 World Series when the kids from Cleveland rooted for the Fucking Yankees(!) in the World Series. Half of Toledo roots for Michigan during football season. this town gives more coverage to ND football and UK basketball than to the Buckeyes. I'd root for the Buchenwald Prison guards before I'd root for the Yankees or Notre Dame. So even though I don't give a damn about NBA basketball, I hope I read that the Cavs won something or other....
 
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The NBA playoffs is just not very exciting. You can pretty much figure out the 2 or 3 teams that will win it all every year. Except for Detroit in 2004, has any team shocked anybody?

Cardinals/Tigers in MLB? who would have thought that?

The NFL is a crapshoot every year.

Except for the 2004 Pistons, every NBA champ since 1984 has had 1 of these players - Bird, Magic, Isiah, Jordan, Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan. That's it.

There was a reason people were going nuts over Warriors/Mavs. It was probably the most exciting playoff series since Kings/Lakers.
 
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tibor75;863360; said:
The NBA playoffs is just not very exciting. You can pretty much figure out the 2 or 3 teams that will win it all every year. Except for Detroit in 2004, has any team shocked anybody?

Cardinals/Tigers in MLB? who would have thought that?

The NFL is a crapshoot every year.

Except for the 2004 Pistons, every NBA champ since 1984 has had 1 of these players - Bird, Magic, Isiah, Jordan, Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan. That's it.

There was a reason people were going nuts over Warriors/Mavs. It was probably the most exciting playoff series since Kings/Lakers.
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Spurs-Mavs last year and Spurs-Suns this year were very good matchups to watch. Unfortunately, they happened before the conference finals.
 
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The NBA, like MLB is just something that fills time until college football.

I watch the Cavs, but never any other NBA game. Aside from tOSU, I watch no college hoops until the tourney and only watch that because of the Bracket Buster contest at work. In MLB, I'll watch the A's if they're on or a few innings of the Indians. I'll watch the Sox-Yankees, but generally, I find baseball a big snoozefest, until the playoffs.
 
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I used to love NBA basketball during the Celtic-Laker era of the 1980s. It was actually the first sport I started watching enthusiastically as a kid. During the Jordan era of the 1990s I stopped watching regular season games, but could still get excited about the playoffs. After 2000, I stopped watching it altogether. In fact, until the Cleveland-Detroit series I had not seen a NBA game in its entirety since 2000.

Having watched the first three games of the finals, I have been reminded of why I stopped enjoying it and actually now hate it. Traveling is not existent. What is considered continuation of a shot is a complete joke. Too much star status. Zero team concept. Seriously, last night was an ugly game where both teams looked pathetic. How is this supposedly the top two teams in the league? I can enjoy NBA games from 25 years ago on ESPN Classic, even though I know the outcome, more than the crap that now passes for it.
 
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tibor75;863360; said:
The NBA playoffs is just not very exciting. You can pretty much figure out the 2 or 3 teams that will win it all every year. Except for Detroit in 2004, has any team shocked anybody?

Cardinals/Tigers in MLB? who would have thought that?

The NFL is a crapshoot every year.

Except for the 2004 Pistons, every NBA champ since 1984 has had 1 of these players - Bird, Magic, Isiah, Jordan, Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan. That's it.

There was a reason people were going nuts over Warriors/Mavs. It was probably the most exciting playoff series since Kings/Lakers.
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This post (as much as it pains me to say so :blush:) pretty much nails it. As A Cleveland sports fan, I'm obviously into this series, but I can see why the rest of the nation may not be. At the beginning of the playoffs, if you polled even the casual NBA fan of who the three teams were that they thought would win the title, the overwhelming "Big Three" would have been Dallas, San Antonio, and Detroit. The Cavs have been a nice human interest story but that's about it. Just one more heartbreak for us starving fans.

It's really hard for an inferior team to pull an upset in a 7 game series in the NBA. In football, it's the "Any Given Sunday" syndrome. In baseball, the beauty of the game is that the very worst team will likely beat the very best team multiple times during the course of the season. Plus, the nature of the NBA game itself is about the LAST thing you'd ever want to show a group of kids that you were trying to teach the game to.
 
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IMO one big problem is the addition of teams, and with all these teams drafting on potential and these young college/high school kids the talent is watered down...

I also think that with kids having to go to college it is going to help the game some...

I mean if Durant goes straight to the NBA out of high school then he is an unknown to a ton of fans that he is known to now that might follow his career, and get interested...Same goes with some other guys that had to come to school, and also that will keep some kids in school for 2 or 3 years to develop their game where tehy would of been out of the league within a couple years...A prime example should be Cook, but he decided to go after his freshmen year, but you have to figure his skill is going to be better than it would of been straight out of high school...

Another thing is your large market teams arent the ones that have been sitting in the finals and winning games lately...

I mean if you appreciate basketball then you can watch guys like Duncan and Parker just carve up a defense...And the problem isnt that these guys arent playing defense, it is that these guys are so offensively skilled that you can only help to contain them...
 
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The NBA, like the NHL, could really use some contraction. It will never happen, but it would greatly improve the quality of the league. Even just going to 28 teams would be a huge improvement.

With that said, I love NBA basketball. It's technically sound(more so than college despite what some people think. NBA players and teams are much more fundamentally sound than EVERY college team). It showcases some of the best athletes in the world playing one of the most athletic sports. Close games in the NBA, IMO, are more exciting than close games in any other sport. I love watching two good teams go at eachother with a minute left, and nothing beats a last second buzzer beater. I think the personalities are more interesting(Shaq, Iverson, Kobe, Lebron, etc...) than you find in college. There's a lot to be appreciated with the emphasized team game in college, but it's stupid to look down on individual skill. I mean, people deride the NBA as being selfish, but if a college player was to have a Kobe 82 or a Lebron Detroit game 5 type game, would those people say that player was selfish? I doubt it.

I love NBA basketball. I love college and high school basketball too, but I think the NBA is easily the highest form right now. They just need to fix the playoffs. That's the main flaw right now. They need to shorten the first round series to 5 games again.
 
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