The league that once upon a time billed itself as "fan-tastic!" with its abundance of the world's best players is now a mere shell of itself. The National Basketball Association has evolved into a very lucrative business courtesy of former Commissioner David Stern's vision for its success and the players are literally cashing in, pocketing millions of guaranteed dollars but sorely lacking the basketball skill sets that make them worthy of signing a contract for the astronomical sums of money being thrown at them.
Stern is also the one to blame for setting into motion what now is a competitive imbalance throughout the league by first allowing high school players to enter the NBA straight upon graduating which has since been amended to the current admission of the one-and-done player.
The pay has never been better but the play never worse than what we've seen the last couple of years in particular. The product on the floor is a watered down version that has suffered tremendously as a whole in spite of the vast sums of money the NBA rakes in via its various sponsors, operations, television and broadcasting rights, profit sharing as well as merchandising.
The game that once captivated audiences world-wide, had fans standing, cheering wildly after an incredible exhibition of athleticism by both teams or riveted to the TV to watch a nail biting finish to a regular season, conference final or championship series is a thing of the past. No longer do we witness shots being made at a high level while being defended at a high level.
The league that pays well does not play well. Look no further than this year's Eastern and Western Conference Finals. In Game 1 in the East, the Celtics defeated the Cavaliers 108-83; Game 2 107-94 and Game 3, Cleveland won 116-86. In the West, the Warriors beat the Rockets Game 1 119-106; lost to Houston Game 2 127-105 and won Game 3 126-85. Those are scoring differentials of 25, 13, 30, 13, 25 and 41 points respectively. That's an average margin of victory of 24.5 points.
Who wants to watch that?
It's far from competitive, entertaining or watchable. Every contest has been filled with disingenuous play, lackadaisical effort and teams just not "showing up". There's plenty of matador defense on display, players not contesting shots or making free throws that they normally would. How else would one explain Cleveland's making 66% of their open "looks" inside the arc and 44% beyond it in a must-win Game 3 at home?
The Celtics might as well had stayed on the bus. They were total "no shows" after executing the perfect defensive game plan on LeBron James Game 1 to win going away. Where was that same game plan, that same level of intensity in Game 3? As for the Houston-Golden State matchup, one has to question the Warriors efforts the entire contest in Game 2 and the Rockets' in an embarrassing 41-point loss Game 3. Throughout both series, there's been an overabundance of turnovers, unforced errors, erratic shooting, failure to box out, rebound, fouls, scowls, blowouts! The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde nature of these contests has to raise questions and a countless number of eyebrows.
The conspiracy theorist in me says the series are rigged, you know, manipulated, engineered, planned, plotted, schemed, premeditated, shady, suspect, coiffed and predictable to maximize viewership and ratings. The most ardent and loyal NBA fans have become first-hand witnesses, watching the game we invented deteriorate to nothing more than a "money grab", a term synonymous with "winning" now.
Ayesha Curry, the staunchest of fans and wife of two-time league MVP Steph Curry, tweeted in a previous Warriors-Cavaliers championship series matchup "I've lost all respect. Sorry. This is absolutely rigged for money or ratings, not sure which. I won't be silent. Just saw it live".
With that in mind, I'm predicting both conference finals will go 6 games. I'll be completely shocked if they don't. It's a shame that a league that once billed itself as "Fan-tastic" is morphing into a mere shell of having once been the greatest in the world. Current Commissioner Adam Silver and his associates have a huge task on their hands - trying to repair the league's image which has taken a severe hit with this extremely poor showing of conference final basketball.
I have one suggestion prior to tackling that issue - table any conversations concerning legalized gambling along with any request that a percentage of the proceeds go into the NBA's coffers. Not a good look with the bad basketball on display for all to see.
