NBA Playoff Update

I am torn as a very skeptical sports fan over the NBA playoffs this year. I have been so into some of the playoff series this year. The Bulls-Celtics series in the first round is still in my opinion the best NBA playoff series I have ever seen. With it going seven games and featuring five games that went down to the last shot, including four overtime games and two multi-overtime games. It was filled with big time performances and unbelievable moments.

And now here we are in the conference final round, and we have the Magic and Cavs tied at one and the Nuggets and Lakers tied at one. All four games have been tremendous. LeBron’s shot to win it last night was awesome. I hope both of these series go seven and continue to be filled with close hard fought games.

But then there is the other side of me that is convinced that David Stern is finding sneaky underhanded ways to fix these games to benefit the NBA’s financial success. As I have mentioned many times before on this website, blog and anywhere else I can be heard, Stern finds a way to guarantee a big market team in the Finals almost every year. In the 1980s, Boston or L.A. was in the Finals every year except when Detroit and Portland met. In the 1990s, it was either Chicago or Houston every year except when New York faced San Antonio. And then of course you had New York. This decade has seen more variety but still large markets. L.A. has had five appearances. New Jersey which is really an extension of New York has been there a couple times. The closest things we have had to a non-big market Finals was Miami-Dallas and those aren’t exactly small cities.

Stern has had some instances blow up in his face like the scandal of referees fixing games or the suspect way ping pong balls are drawn at the draft lottery. But I’m positive Stern has found other ways that the public hasn’t caught onto yet to fix games. Even big name players like Ray Allen have accused Stern of making sure the large market teams get in to the mix.

I’m convinced that you will never see a Milwaukee-Sacramento or Charlotte-Utah Finals during Stern’s tenure. He would never allow it. He is a very smart, deceptive and extremely evil commissioner that I hope goes away soon.

So here I am torn because I’m watching the games anyway. But when I think about it more, it’s the same as being drawn into watching “Law And Order”, another TV addiction I have. Obviously, that is not real life either. The NBA is just staging its own pre-written drama much like professional wrestling. They just won’t admit it.