The Rockets have won 19 in a row. Why don't you care?

That's exactly it. I guess, more to the point, the Knicks have become irrelevant in New York. Nobody cares what happens on the court because the organization is that universally hated.

 

So because the Knicks blow chunks, that's a reason to hate the NBA?

 

I didn't say I hated the NBA. I said I don't care about it. The Knicks have conspired to drain any interest I might have in the league.

 

HB brings up an interesting point. More so than any of the other pro sports, interest in the NBA is more tied to how "your" team is doing.

My interest in the NBA fell off the face of the earth once I stopped covering it in the early part of this decade.

Why? Part of it was the dreckish 70-65 games you'd get too often, scoring fell off the face of the earth starting in the mid 90s. It was not an entertaining game at all, combined with the NBA hype machine which claimed otherwise, it turned me off.

But another part of it for me is the Milwaukee Bucks have been a non-entity since '01, there's no conduit for me to revive my interest even as scoring has revived a bit. I can admire players like LeBron, but it's not enough to get me back into the sport.

I guess what I'm saying is that interest in the NBA is much more fleeting than the NFL or MLB for me.

 

Yao is out and T-Mac isn't even near my radar since he's never been successful in the playoffs.

 

Fair enough.

But then why is 54-52 (N.C. State-Houston 1983) regarded as an "Oh my God!" moment? Just because one team learned how to win by fouling and another team was saddled with the second-worst coaching performance in basketball history?

Hell, even the winning basket was a garbage pickup of an air ball.

 

Quote from Smalltown:
"What about the fact Shaq and Duncan have won eight of the nine titles since Jordan retired? I don't think they're extinct, especially with young studs like Bynum and Howard in the wings. There's definitely not the depth of big men like there once was - when Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson, Shaq, etc., were all playing - but I think the big men will still make the difference. It was Bynum's development that elevated the Lakers to the top earlier in the season, and great big guys will still almost always beat great small players."

EXTINCT describes the plight of the NBA pivot man during the past two eras.
Thanks for proving my point; you named five big men, three proven and one washed up.
Howard is, young, talented. Bynum, How long has he been in the league, is this the same guy that Kobe wanted the Lakers to trade a couple of months ago?
Shaq is done and Duncan may have three or four more years left.
You named just another four from the NBA's previous era: Hakeem, Robinson, Ewing and Shaq.

Here's a list of true pivot men who played during the 1970-71 season: Jabbar, Chamberlain, Thurmond, Reed, Lucas, Cowens, Bellamy, Hayes, Unseld, Laneer, Lacey and Luke Jackson.

 

Valid points for both of you and no arguments from me. The Rockets had been such a do-nothing team for a decade that this streak is the only reason why most Houston fans are even paying attention. If they croak in the first round, however, the sound you'll hear next is thousands of people throwing their Rockets pennants in the trash.

 

It's the Houston Rockets.
It's the NBA.
It never would happen if a third of the teams were shipped to the CBA, where they belong.

 

My standard isn't the same. I expect more out of the NBA. In the 80s, the worst offenses creeped up to 100 points per game. When playoff games fell down into the 60s in a 48-minute game with a 24-second shot clock, it was God awful. Too many iso plays. Too much milking of the shot clock, etc. These are pros, I expect better.

It doesn't mean college basketball doesn't produce some dreckish games because they do, but my standard for a college game isn't the same.

 

I agree. I covered a NBA game recently and seemingly every offensive set was the isolation play after milking the clock. No cutting. Very little ball movement. Just another boring NBA game.

 

Never happened.

Not once has an NBA team won a playoff game with a score in the 60s.

Only 17 times in the 14 years from 1990-2003 did the winning team score as low as the 70s. An average of just over one time per year . . . out of about 80 playoff games each year.

Go back and look at the playoff scores from the 90s and early 00s. You might be surprised how many 90- and 100-point games there were.

I don't really expect more offense out of the NBA. Sure, a little, because the game is 8 minutes longer. But ask J.J. Redick (and 100 others like him) why all of a sudden they can't get off a shot in the NBA. The defense is simply light years ahead of anything in the college game (please do not even attempt to dispute this), so it evens out, and the 3-point shot is actually, you know, difficult.