I Will Bet My Mortgage.......

I am a San Antonio Spurs fan. They are usually really good and contend for a NBA title every year.

They lost by 29 last night.

In the playoffs.

To the Rockets.

At home.

And it really doesn’t matter much to me.

Why?

Well, I know the Spurs have little to zero chance to win the title this season.

Sounds weird, I know. I mean they have the second best record. Yes. SECOND BEST. And they have little to no chance at the title.

Neither do the Rockets.

Neither do the Cavaliers.

When Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors, it was over. And this is awful for the league.

I know I have chatted about this before. But we are seeing it more clearly now than we did before. This is a one team league, with a speckling of other great players dispersed on other teams. And this is awful for the league.

I have heard over and over again that dynasties are great for any sport. That ratings go up, interest increases in the sport, etc. But the reality is that all of this is very short term and one sided. What about the other teams? What about the other players competing? Is this something that is sustainable for years, or is it a situation where people will grow tired of the same old, same old?

David Stern said that his dream NBA Finals would be the Lakers vs the Lakers. Can you imagine a commissioner actually SAYING that? Amazing. Anyway, my main question to that is ‘Why do we even have 30 teams? Why not just have 8 or so like they did back in the day and pretty much guarantee an ‘interesting’ finale?’.

There is a reason why there are 30 teams. You want your sport to be appreciated around the nation. If there are only a few teams, the game becomes very localized and overall interest wanes (ie: reference the NHL). The NBA have maintained a national interest, unlike hockey, NASCAR, etc. But that national grip will slip if the league turns into a place where only 2 or 3 teams have all the best guys, any everyone else is playing the role of the Washington Generals.

It is that way right now. It was that way in the ‘60’s. Does Adam Silver want to revert back to that ‘60’s NBA?

I don’t think so.

I am not sure what he can do, but at this rate where players can just form super teams and leaving 25+ other teams out to dry, draining the competitiveness out of the league, well…..I am less interested in bringing the NBA back to Seattle.

But it really doesn’t.