The beauty of sports is that it’s okay — and usually more fun — to be wrong.
Let me explain. As sports fans, we all feel the need to play expert and make predictions about everything from who will win the World Series to how many sexually transmitted diseases Michael and Marcus Vick have between them.
Just like the Mel Kipers and Barry Melroses of the world, we are almost always wrong. Just too many things can happen in any given sport. Every league will provide its share of upsets.
Every league that is, except for the NBA.
As the league’s final regular season games come to a close, it is apparent that only two teams have a realistic chance to even reach the NBA finals. Trust me - you don’t need Stephen A. Smith to tell you who they are.
In the East, Detroit is so much better than everyone else that it’s boring. I’d rather watch the Knicks for comedic value alone than see the Pistons paste the Miami Heat every night.
Last night, Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal scored 29 and 28 points respectively in their loss to Detroit. No one else scored above six for the Heat. That’s right. Udonis Haslem, Antoine Walker and Gary Payton all played more than 32 minutes; none of them managed to make a couple lay-ups and a few free-throws. Six. And that’s supposed to be the second-best in the Eastern conference?
Out west, you have San Antonio at the top and two teams hoping they can at least make the conference finals competitive in Dallas and Phoenix. At least the Mavericks are decent. In fact, they are much better than Miami. They are sort of like Ewing’s Knicks compared to Jordan’s Bulls. They will probably give the Spurs a run for their money and fall just short.
The Suns, on the other hand, think every game is the first half of an All Star game. They can score 130 points a night but they might give up 150.
After that, there’s nobody in either conference. That’s what’s missing in the NBA. You’re not going to find a George Mason in either conference. You’re not going to see a crazy Cavaliers/Lakers match up.
It just can’t happen. It’s not so much that the Pistons and Spurs are even that much better than everyone else. It’s just that everyone else stinks.
Until the middle of the pack teams can challenge the top teams, the NBA will remain almost unwatchable.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
This is how it was in the '70s, I hear. In a league lacking team play and "the extra pass," these are the two best teams who know how to build a championship team.
Still, I think one of those two teams will be there but another one will sneak in to the finals.
2 - alex
Take notice that the NBA is infact getting better. Give it maybe five more year