This guy stole my thunder for my NBA playoffs post, but I agree, the first weekend of the playoffs came and went and I didn't watch a minute. Is the NBA losing one of its 19 remaining fans? After starting out full of enthusiasm, by mid season I realized I hadn't been paying much attention to things. I suppose my situation in previous years of living at home and not having a bf was a little more conducive to watching league pass late into the night, but still. First of all, there are several inherent problems with the NBA playoffs. First and foremost, it's 2 freaking months long with, these days, little chance of surprise. The system of every division leader getting a top-3 spot no matter the record is flawed. Switching the format from 5- to 7-game first round series was a big mistake. Any chance for an underdog to win is gone, it's almost unheard of for the better team to lose in a 7-game series. Everyone one says the playoffs are great because they're so intense...maybe on the court, but not so much for those of us watching at home. We know we have 80 more games to watch before things really matter. And it's looking pretty likely that it's gonna be another ho-hum Spurs/Pistons finals, so there's not even much to look forward to.

My bigger concern though is my lack of interest in the season as a whole. I'm going to hope this season was just an anomaly. The only new real standout player was Chris Paul. There were no surprising teams. The fun surprise teams from last year (Bulls, Wizards, Sonics) stunk this year. The up-and-coming teams (Bucks) fell flat. The storylines are the same: LeBron is the second coming, Kobe averages 57 pts but can he lead the Lakers, the Knicks are pathetic. The season's been so unremarkable there's ~35 different options for MVP and no one stands out. I think the deluge of high school players probably diluted the talent pool and name recognition factor, so hopefully with the age limit things will turn around. Oh and also my team's season was an utter train wreck, which will 3 months from now culminate in the love of my life being traded in what will likely prove to be a disastrous deal putting us in a multiple-year rebuilding cycle and probably not put him in the position to win a championship.

Driving home last week listening to the hateable Howard Eskin on WIP, I nearly had a panic attack when the announcers said "Tonight at 7, Sixers vs. Nets in Allen Iversons last game in a Sixers uniform" and the show's topic was "Are you happy to see Iverson go?" I'm starting to cope though. There's just no chance of either him or the team having any success if they stay together. My wishful thinking now is that that trade for Kevin Garnett (my second favorite player and actually part of Sixers trade rumors, however unlikely) and pick up an unselfish front court stud, either in the draft or otherwise. You never know. Whatever happens, I think it will be an interesting test for me. The whole time I've been really into the Sixers, Iverson's been on the team, so we'll see how I do if he's gone and the team's bad. I expect I'll stay a team fan but still follow the player, which I think is acceptable.

For now, I'm jumping on the Clippers bandwagon. I like that Sam I Am.


***I forgot to mention, I think I'm also sort of subconsciously bitter at the playoffs being on TNT for cutting my Law & Order episodes down to ~13 a week. You'd think Inside the NBA every night would be a good tradeoff, but it doesn't even start until 1:30am these days!