Bored of Basketball

The NBA finals ended today. Am I the only one really bored by this, when I used to really like professional basketball? I haven't actually been following basketball much, but occasionally check out how the various teams are doing, usually the Lakers, the Hornets, the Heat, and the Bobcats are the ones I look for, since I have various connections to those. The NBA playoffs started up, what, a month ago, and for some reason nothing seemed interesting about them until Golden State started making a run against Dallas, which was pretty cool and the games I saw were fun to watch. After that, though, it was pretty much over. I watched Golden State play against Utah and lose, and got bored of the rest that I saw, with the only bright spot being LeBron James stepping up in their series against Detroit, which was pretty neat as it was actually reminiscent of Michael Jordan. For someone who gets compared to Jordan a whole lot, it was interesting to see a time it actually felt like a fair comparison.

The finals, however, were a complete dud. The Spurs destroyed that other team they played, and it never really looked like an actual contest was happening. Sure, Cleveland could have won several of the games played as they got close, but it never felt like they were actually in the contest.

I think part of the problem was the length of the early series in the playoffs. When the teams play best of 7, it's really hard (for me) to get interested until three or four games have been played, because everything is just building tension towards the games where one team or the other can clinch the series. Except for many of these they never reached any point of tension. In the first round, of these three were won 4-0, two were 4-1, two were 4-2 and one was 4-3. The latter three actually were fairly interesting. I think, however, it would be a lot more interesting if the first rounds were actually a lot shorter: three or five games, as then even the first games can be instrumental, and at least if it's going to be a blowout, it'll be over quick. Even the way the NCAA tournament does it would work, where a single loss and you're out, just open up the playoffs to more teams, set up a bracket and let them go. Maybe that team that's at the bottom of the standings makes a great run and wins the playoffs! It could happen, however unlikely, and that's the sort of story that would get me pretty interested.

Anyways... while I doubt many people reading this actually are interested in the NBA, do speak up if you've got ideas or comparisons. :)