Death of the team hurts NBA

The NBA playoffs are fast approaching, and that can only mean one thing: It’s time to turn… The NBA playoffs are fast approaching, and that can only mean one thing: It’s time to turn your televisions off.

That is, if you aren’t a big fan of one-on-one possessions, two-month playoffs and dulled-down talent. Still, many fans hang on, finding solace in the perfect teams that reach the later rounds in the playoffs every year (see: the Spurs and the Pistons).

I remember discussing the NBA with my dad, a diehard fan through the years. My old man reminisced about the days of old, when teams like the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, Rockets, Suns and 76ers used their nucleus of players — players that formed a family with one another — to reach legendary levels of NBA history.

How did they do it?

They did it by getting up and down the floor, scoring in transition, finding the open guy and making the extra pass. They did with last-second heroics and full-tilt hustle. They did it with passion.

Then came Michael Jordan and NBA fans forgot about teamwork and group efforts and began remembering a single player’s number. Michael Jordan — one of the greatest athletes of all time and certainly the most famous basketball player ever — took basketball and turned it into an individual’s game.

Now we see guys like Ricky Davis toss the ball off his own team’s backboard with no one around to collect his 10th rebound and post a triple-double for his own benefit. We see Kobe Bryant take 45 shots or the Cavaliers stand around and watch as LeBron James attempts to break down the five opponents guarding him.

There is nothing wrong with the spectacular talent these players possess. In fact, nothing is more exhilarating or exciting than watching some of the world’s finest athletes go head-to-head in a battle of egos.

But somewhere along the line, the fans lost their way. They lost interest in the games and lost interest in their cities’ team.

A lot of fans will tell you that they only watch college hoops these days. The NBA is too slow for them, they don’t relate to the new faces of the league and they don’t like the illusion of laziness that NBA players put across.

This is problematic. People want to see scoring. People want to see fast breaks. People want to see dunks and 3-pointers, alley-oops and fluid offenses. They want to see something different.

If they want to watch fundamental basketball, they’ll watch college or high school basketball. The NBA has slowed down its games, extending the 3-point line, allowing zone defenses while calling continuation fouls when LeBron James gets fouled at halfcourt and somehow converts an and-one lay in.

The NBA needs to relax a little bit. They need to contract and really condense the talent. If teams have legitimately stacked lineups, then the games will be more interesting.

No offense, David Stern, but the prospect of a starting lineup that includes Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Viktor Khryapa, Zach Randolph and Joel Pryzbilla playing for their 60th loss of the season doesn’t entice me to tune in to any Blazers games.

I also don’t think watching the Washington Wizards in the playoffs — a team with a lineup that features Jared Jeffries and Brendan Haywood — is something I want to do for two weeks of my summer.

In the playoffs, the lower seeds no longer have a shot at upsets. The five-game, first-round series are gone, replaced by the two-week, seven-game sets that weed out the upset specials.

Put together a league that has potential for upsets and potential for excitement. Put together a league that features 10 to 15 teams with solid lineups. I want teams that have five all-stars in their starting rotation. Currently, the Pistons and Spurs are really the only teams that we can count on for that in today’s NBA.

As a league with actual rules on salaries and fairness, the NBA needs to produce a product similar to the NFL. The NFL makes its game marketable with parity, giving arguably 12 to 15 cities a year a decent shot at making the Super Bowl. If the NBA could guarantee competitiveness in 12 cities, the fan base would explode.

NBA games are fun to go to. The entertainment during breaks excites the little kids, the raw talent attracts legitimate basketball fans and the nice atmosphere — in most arenas — makes for a quality night of fun. But the fact that only three or four teams have an actual chance to win anything makes the season seem almost pointless.

So bring back the days of old, Mr. Stern. Bring us eight teams, 10 teams, maybe even 15 teams that can compete every year. Make the playoffs shorter. Give us five-game series and seven games in nine days. And, of course, don’t allow Isiah Thomas to be anyone’s general manager.

Just save the NBA. Because at this time of year, the only other sport on television that has exciting potential in the playoffs is the NHL. Please don’t make me watch the NHL.

Please.

Jeff Greer intends to waste half of his summer watching the NBA playoffs. Do you? E-mail him at jag59@pitt.edu.