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- Wanna submit something?
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Where The NBA Has Failed. Simply answered: when the league hired David Stern. The NBA as exemplified by its horrific ratings during this year’s Finals is the result of David Stern and his shoving of Michael Jordan down America’s throat throughout the late 80's and 90’s. How about we back it up to the 1980’s, first. Moreover, the overwhelming theme of O’Brien’s league was the promotion of the team first, which seems to be the winning formula for other team sports that aren’t currently fishing their ratings out of the crapper. Why do you think the NFL is so adamant about “discouraging” their players from taking their helmets off? They don’t want it to be about the individual, but instead, the team. Of course you'll have your high profile players, but team is always first. In the NBA that’s only the case when a marque player isn’t playing, but we never see those teams on TV anyway, so who cares? What Stern didn’t understand when he saw the popularity of Magic and Bird flourish was that they became the icons they were because they won, not because they solely had marketing dollars thrown at them. Their whole setup was an anomaly anyway, that started in college and divinely materialized for them on teams with great players and tradition. So, from the outside looking in, you saw Magic and Bird as the faces of the league, but meanwhile the Kareem's, McHale's, Worthy's and DJ's were the ones making the stars look great by not only being competent, but they were stars in their own right. Enter the mediocre baseball player that wore 45. Only a fucking fool wouldn’t have seen this as a long term death sentence. And sure enough after Cheese Eyes finally retired; from Grant Hill to Penny through Vince, Kobe and now LeBron the searching for that one name that will make the league immensely popular again has been Stern’s prime objective, but hasn’t even come close to materializing. Mainly, because the fans are either still recovering from the Jordan reflux they had or they’re waiting for someone to show up with six rings so they can deem him worthy. I sat down and watched one of those Finals games with my grandson and at one point, I saw the young boy staring at the television with the most confused look on his face. When I asked the boy what the hell was wrong with him, he looked up at me and said, “Grandaddy, how can this be happening, LeBron ain’t supposed to lose.” I told him, “First of all ain’t, ain’t a word unless you have an AARP card and second of all, your boy LeBron ain’t all that. Now get my cup of sweet tea out of the fridge!” Taking a big swig of that fine tasting tea, I couldn’t tell you how much I wished Stern was standing in front of me, so I could push him right over my box of vintage Jet magazines (many that date back to the mid 70’s). As a result of this fool’s repeated failures in creating an “air-apparent,” he has become all but desperate and acted like a plum fool the past few years. I’m tired of all the damn tweaking the game undergoes every off-season, only to fuck it up more. As recent as the conclusion of the Finals, I’ve heard Stern might be willing to do away with the conferences during the playoffs and instead create a Sweet-16 format. *sigh* Actually, after you get past the ruined tradition and blasphemy this wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Plus he could do away with Jerry West and replace the current NBA logo with the Jumpman that adorns half of college unis nowadays. I bet he would just love that shit.
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FIYA NBA Ranks: #9 |
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Coupling LeBron’s Finals demise with the NBA’s Draft and hopes that the sport will inherit its “Next” big thing; one must ask the question, when did we become so damn desperate for a single savior for a fucking team sport? 