NBA GRIPE

I am unable to express my happiness that the Lakers and Celtics are in the NBA Finals, again.  Mainly because I have none.  Teams that were as recently as 4 years ago in what should have been the standard several year rebuilding mode.  Then, sudden gift trades made them good again.  Makes me wonder how the salary cap really works.

Lebron, D-Wade, Amar'e, Chris Bosh and maybe other free agents getting together to arrange where they will all sign is certain collusion.  But it's collusion against the fans.  It is clear that the NBA is on the road to copying the MLB.  Make sure the Yankees and Sox get who they want.  In this case it's the Lakers, Celtics and probably also the Bulls.  This is going to create the same model.  In MLB, 20 teams are basically glorified AAA teams, 3-6 new teams bubble up each year to contend, only to have their good players going to Boston or New York when they become free agents.  Do you really want to attend NBA games knowing your sqaud is a glorified D-league team.

This is why I love the NFL.  There are no "golden child" teams. The NBA, MLB and NHL all have had sets of teams match up 10 or more times for championships.  Each of these leagues also have individual teams with 25% of all titles, and some can combine 2 teams for more than half of all titles.  The NFL, on the other hand,  has had the same two teams meet in the Super Bowl no more than 3 times (Dallas vs Pittsburgh).  The NFL doesn't really care who gets to the Super Bowl.  Big or small market doesn't matter.  The NFL has successfully nationalized the entire league.

If you lived in Arizona, could you imagine yourself watching the Oioles vs the Rays or the Clippers vs the Thunder if they were the only regular season game on?   Could you imagine yourself watching the Chiefs vs the Rams?  Speaking for myself and my close friends, I can safely say we would watch the football game, but in the case of the other sports,  we would likely find something else to watch or do.

Television pundits always acted so horrified when San Antonio was in the NBA finals because the 3rd biggest city in Texas is a "small market".  Same for Houston, Tampa Bay and even St. Louis when they were in the World Series.  When Pittsburgh and Seattle played in the Super Bowl, we still watched.  Some may argue that football being a once a week, mainly weekend sport, is the reason.  I don't buy that.

I believe player education is the real reason.  In college, you only hear about a few freshman phenoms and most college players are in school through their senior year.  Fans nationally get to know the players as they develope and most popular college players get a shot in the NFL.  The extra years the football players spend in college allow them to mature intellectually much more.  Look at basketball.  The top new players are either foreigners we have never heard of or were one year freshman wonders that only went to class for their first semester and lose early in the NCAA tournament.  The darlings of the NCAA tournament rarely seem to make it in the NBA.  Teams that get to the Final 4 are usually just that, teams.  Few Sportscenter top ten highlights,  but lots of tournament success.

The best baseball players, generally come straight out of high school, and even then spend several years in the minors, forgotten by Major League fans.  And then they are trade bait and don't stay with the drafting team very long.

I'm just saying, both the leagues and players associations should really take a look at how to make their sports "national games" the way football has.

TYPICAL

I should have figured.  3 races for close to 1300 miles and only on race that had any real excitement.  Nascar drivers favor the no passing, one car dominates tracks.  And lately, that's drivers I don't care for.  Since there is more passing for the lead in the pits during cautions, maybe that's whay they should change the series into.  If the series is based on pit tricks, it's losing it's fun.  Since the sponsors demand young, "pretty" drivers who can't drive very well, maybe they should just have a beauty contest.  Since the "car of today" is some template that only the rich teams can set up correctly, and then only for one or two drivers,  it puts 20-30 cars on the track with no chance to win.  Guess I'll just have to quit watching until a Daytona or Talladega race.  Oh wait, one of the sponsor mandated drivers will cause a big wreck and ruin the race.

IRL was slightly more interesting because of fuel at the end.  It was pretty clear that no one was going to be able to pass Dario Franchitti, but he couldn't pass anyone when pit stops left him in 4th.  He only got the lead back when the cars in front of him had to stop.

In each of these 2 series, it appears to me they have alot of drivers that want to drive fast, but don't want to race.  Oh but they do want to block and neither governing body will do anything real about it.  Blocking stops passing and cause wrecks.

Formula 1 was the race with the most interest, but still little real passing.  Michael Schumacher had a very good finish.  Lewis Hamilton won due to both Red Bull drivers taking themselves out on lap 41.  He likely would have made it interesting at the end if there was no wreck.  This wreck was also marred by fuel concerns.  In a sereies that no longer allows fueling on pit stops,  they should make sure the thing can get through the race.  All the drivers had to slow significantly to conserve fuel.  FIA needs to mandate that each car carry an equal but sufficient amount to let the drivers race hard to the end.