NBA Musings

In spite of my earlier conviction that I would never be interested anymore in the National Basketball Association after the pointless impasse between management and labor that resulted in the threatened cancellation of this season, I can't deny my interest in this exciting sport.  So the greedy money grubbers all eventually realized that, regardless of which side of the conflict they were on, they stood to lose an enormous amount of money from prolonging it.  An agreement was consequently quickly reached in time to salvage a shortened regular season.  But I was bummed out anyway over the incredible avarice going on here...

Still, although in an indirect sense I'm probably paying for this league of the filthy rich through advertising and TV programming rates, I am not paying any more than anyone else. I may choose to watch a game on TV instead of something else, but I am not attending games.  Nor do I buy anything that has the official endorsement of the NBA, its teams, or players.  But I have found avoiding the NBA to be difficult, so here I am close to the end of the regular season and beginning to look forward to the playoffs.

Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns are my personal favorites: this is because Nash is my favorite NBA player.  His playmaking intelligence and skill on offense reminds me of Peyton Manning's mastery of offense in football.  Were he playing for another team, I'd be rooting for them instead.  However, the Suns just might miss out on the playoffs this year.  And there are other teams I tend to support as well.

Here are my favorite NBA teams, listed by preference:

1--Phoenix Suns
2--San Antonio Spurs
3--Dallas Mavericks
4--Boston Celtics
5--Chicago Bulls

And here are the NBA teams I oppose the most, starting with my least liked:

1--Los Angeles Lakers
2--Oklahoma City Thunder
3--Well, that's it, actually...these are the only two teams I really want to see lose.  I used to be vehemently against the Miami Heat, but something recently completely turned my opinion of them around. When Peyton Manning was considering joining up with the Miami Dolphins, Heat stars Dwyane Wade and Lebron James publicly promoted the NFL franchise and expressed their wishes that the star quarterback would move his career to Miami.  So what that it didn't work? That still left me with a good enough feeling about them that I often find myself rooting for the Miami Heat (unless they're playing one of my aforelisted "Top Five", that is)...

One way for the Thunder to redeem themselves to me would be for them to defeat the Lakers in the playoffs, should they find themselves matched up in a series.  As for the Lakers, they can redeem themselves if they do but one thing: get rid of Andrew Bynum, who assaulted a Dallas player on the court during a playoff game last year. I can't root for any team that would accept this kind of thuggery...