Finally the madness is done ... the NBA is back!

It was great when the Mavs kicked the crap out of the egocentric douchenozzles, though.

Couldn't get enough.

 

Wait, it does? To me, it looked like the owners didn't get much out of this. It looks much like the system they already had with no hard cap and it still being very difficult to break a cycle of sucking.

It really doesn't matter to me overall, because the joy I'd get from the Pacers winning the NBA title is about the same as the Senators winning the Northeast Division. Hockey owns my heart and always will. But I'd like to have a little bit of reason to care about the NBA, even if it will always run eighth on my sports radar and would fall to ninth if college football ever gets a playoff system.

 

The players lose $3 billion over the 10-year deal by going from 57 to 50 percent. The rest of the terms haven't been announced, but early indications are that there will be additional restrictions on teams over the luxury tax, as well as the end of sign-and-trades for teams over the cap. Your interpretation that "the owners didn't get much out of this" is very strange.

 

We'll see how it looks when it's finalized. I really was hoping for the cancelled season, though.

 

Terrible that your hopes are dashed.

 

I get it. You're a white guy from the Midwest who doesn't like the NBA. Big shocker. You're not going to get a large number of people caring about the regular season, but more people care about the NBA than the NHL, especially come playoff time.

Heck, I'll watch the Nets when the season gets going.

 

I'm not from the Midwest, I'm from the East Coast. The NHL playoffs are also infinitely more exciting than the NBA playoffs.

 

The problem when comparing the two playoffs is that in hockey, the game is compelling to watch for 60 minutes of mostly constant action. In the NBA, you get so many starts and stops with timeouts at the end, and the last two minutes drag on for a half-hour, it's almost as if the first 46 minutes are semi-meaningless.

 

Why does every conversation about the NBA lockout invariably end up with some asshole saying "Man, I wish (formerly, hope) the season were canceled."

I take four issues with that sentiment:

1.) You probably watched at least some of the NBA playoffs last season. Even if you barely watched, why would you be happy for fewer options?
2.) If you really didn't watch any NBA last season, why do you care about the NBA's existence?
3.) If your counterpoint is that the NBA creates more work at your newspaper, you would have to fill that space one way or another, right?
4.) No matter your relationship to the league, if you don't care, why are you posting in a thread about it?

 

Maybe, just maybe, there's a chance that if the NBA were canceled for a year, the players, when they come back, will have an appreciation for what they have and the game they can play so well. This appreciation will lead to a better brand of basketball, less predictable and more competitive.

 

Or maybe we'd lose out on some of the last good years for stars such as Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and more, along with key developmental years for many others.