Don't Watch the Finals
I'm sure a lot of people have said to you something like "wait until the Finals, that's when the NBA season really begins". And at first, I was thinking, "well I agree, the Warriors and Cavaliers are clearly the favorites for a third straight Finals matchup, so the regular season (and most of the postseason) doesn't matter".
That's exactly where it hit me. It hit me today, when the Spurs were already down 2-0 and short a superstar SF and Hall of Fame PG to the Warriors, and when the Cavs clearly are better than Boston despite the seeding attached to it (ask the 2015 Atlanta Hawks). I want the regular season, postseason, and Finals to actually matter, and I'm tired of being able to predict exactly what will happen in the NBA.
Why do people like the NCAA tournament so much? Upsets. Sure, basketball fans enjoy watching the sheer volume of basketball, but it's the upsets that give every game the potential of something special. It's the same, to a lesser degree, with football in both professional and collegiate. An undefeated season and better record matters more, and any team can win on any give Sunday or Saturday. In the NBA, a seven game series pretty much defines who truly is better, and the underdog has virtually no chance. In baseball, tell me that the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Dodgers had no chance, and their fans believed they had no chance. False, abso-freaking-lutely false!
Look, so many teams feel like they have a chance for a longer amount of time in every sport outside of the association. It's happened throughout it's history too, though not to this degree since Bill Russell and the Celtics. Look at Magic Johnson and the Lakers, Michael Jordan and the Bulls, the Spurs, LeBron's teams, Larry Bird's Celtics, etc. Barry Bonds was never a champion, neither was Dan Marino, Kansas has one national since Bill Self took over despite 117 straight Big 12 titles. Brett Favre has one ring, Tom Brady hasn't even made every Super Bowl since 2001. For as great as everybody says he is, he only has five rings in 17 years. But, a year ago everybody knew it would be Golden State-Cleveland III, and there is a problem with that.
Why is there a problem, you naive people ask? Is it really fair to 27 franchises to have no chance declared before the season begins, and have it proved (c'mon Boston, you can't beat Golden State even if you beat Cleveland)? Sure, the NBA players and owners and staff make tons more money by this happening, for some reason, and we all buy in. But who cares about the players and owners, the CUSTOMER is always right. People want a competitive NBA, not an NBA where the future can be foretold in the summer before the season.
That's why, if it turns out to be Cleveland-Golden State in the NBA Finals, I am asking all of you to boycott watching it on TV, because that's where the majority of the money comes from. Check the score on cbssports.com or wherever, follow the tweets, look at the highlights, but DON'T WATCH! It's the only way fans can show to the association that we dislike the non-competitiveness 11 months out of the year.
