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Sorry, NBA, I'm sitting this one out
So I've been told - repeatedly, and by multiple in-your-face sources - that this year's NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics is supposed to be the greatest finals in some time. It's supposed to return the NBA to its yesteryear glory, the days or heated rivalries and exciting superstars.
I'm not buying it.
You can go ahead and blame some of the disinterest on my Pistons' fandom, and the resulting bitterness from Boston eliminating Detroit one step short of the finals. That aspect certainly fuels a bit of this.
There's more to it, though.
All playoffs long - make that, all SEASON long - the national media has just bashed Joe Fan over the head with the prospect of a Lakers-Celtics final. I can't take it anymore.
Frankly, it is bad enough that every media outlet, and especially East Coast lovin' ESPN made it clear that anything short of Boston-LA in the finals would be worthless. ESPN.com's Page 2 actually featured a joke that the nation was fearing a San Antonio-Detroit matchup.
The whole thing is just ridiculous. This is not the 1980s when the Lakers and Celtics were by far the most dominant teams in the league. Those NBA days have come and gone - the game is different. The game is more boring.
Take Game 2 for example: Boston shot 38 free throws, including 13 by reserve Leon Powe. Los Angeles shot 10. In Game 1, people went crazy when Paul Pierce went down with a knee "injury", writhing in pain while the announcers talked of the potentially disastrous consequences, and then Pierce's teammates carried him off the court like a soldier wounded on D-Day.
He came back three minutes later. He played all of Game 2.
The fact is that this series, and by association this league, is not as good as it thinks it is - or as good as the national media will have you believe it is when some of their golden child teams are featured.
The action is still slow, dragged out by endless strings of free throws, epic commercial breaks and several days between playoff games. The fundamentals? They're garbage compared to those Magic and Bird days. And as for this sensational rivalry rebirth? Yawn. There is not much drama watching Pau Gasol guard P.J. Brown in the post.
The 2008 NBA Finals are suffering from what I like to call "Citizen Kane disease".
Citizen Kane is wildly hailed as the Greatest Movie in Cinema History. Because of those honors and mentions, people that would otherwise pass on seeing the film give it a look. And you know what? It rarely lives up to the hype. It's long. It's slow. Parts of it are kind of obnoxious.
And that's basically what the NBA has come to.
The league and its media followers - specifically ESPN and ABC here - hyped up this series more than any NBA Finals series possibly ever. Certainly in the last 10-15 years.
But the product on the court doesn't live up. Sure, Boston fans are loving it, and Los Angeles fans will go crazy for the games there. The kids out there who worship Kobe or KG or Ray Allen will eat the thing up.
This thing isn't for everyone, though. I know I am not alone in feeling this way.
So, despite what I'm supposed to do, I think I'll steer clear of the rest of this series. The NBA needs to come down a peg.
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