NBA Playoffs

[sushi cowboy]

Is there any intriguing second round match ups?

Dallas / Denver might be good.

Whaddayouseguys think?

Is it too soon to start looking forward to the Lakers/Cavs finals?

[Tom Scharpling]

In the spring, it goes like this: NCAA > NHL Playoffs > Masters > Triple Crown > NBA Playoffs > Spring baseball.

I was really rooting for another Pistons-Spurs Classic.

The NBA is about grown men who are the best basketball players on the planet fighting and scrapping to validate the fighting they've been diong for six months. For me, there is nothing better than an upset when it is EARNED in a best-of-seven series, not just merely tripped over in a single elimination game.

And I will say this until the end of time. College basketball is a coaches' sport. They are the only constant to these teams. I have a hard time rooting for a sport where the single constant is a dude in his fifties wearing a suit.

Plus, any sport where a douche like Wojo can actually have an impact is inherently flawed.

That is my two cents. You like college basketball, bully for you! It has always been children's basketball for me, and the only interesting component is wondering which of the college superstars will be able to cut it with the grown men of the NBA.

[Gilly]

How many 1st round draft picks, maybe even 2nd round draft picks could succeed if they were handed a role similar to Rajon Rondo's? I'd say most. He had to rise up to the occasion, but that guy lucked out getting consistent playing time so early in his career on a great team. That happens.... well pretty much never.

[Stephan]

The Birdman got clean because of Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

[buffcoat]

The NBA is about grown men who are the best basketball players on the planet fighting and scrapping to validate the fighting they've been diong for six months. For me, there is nothing better than an upset when it is EARNED in a best-of-seven series, not just merely tripped over in a single elimination game.

And I will say this until the end of time. College basketball is a coaches' sport. They are the only constant to these teams. I have a hard time rooting for a sport where the single constant is a dude in his fifties wearing a suit.

Plus, any sport where a douche like Wojo can actually have an impact is inherently flawed.

That is my two cents. You like college basketball, bully for you! It has always been children's basketball for me, and the only interesting component is wondering which of the college superstars will be able to cut it with the grown men of the NBA.

I'm definitely on board with the "some people like one, some people like the other and that's good" concept.

I wouldn't argue for a second that the NBA doesn't have superior players.  They are the best basketball players in the world (or least by far the single greatest concentration thereof).  No question.

I just find it to be an inferior product.  Like if the NFL used Canadian Football rules.  The 24-second clock, the lack of traveling calls, the even-greater-than-for-Duke favoritism for the best players, the fact that there are many players whose primary skills are using their asses to shove guys out of the way - all that turns it into something that only barely resembles the basketball I enjoy watching.

And Wojo was always talked about way more than any actual impact he had.  Duke recruits are McDonald's All Americans because they are Duke recruits, not because they are the best talent coming out of high school.

[jbissell]

How many 1st round draft picks, maybe even 2nd round draft picks could succeed if they were handed a role similar to Rajon Rondo's? I'd say most. He had to rise up to the occasion, but that guy lucked out getting consistent playing time so early in his career on a great team. That happens.... well pretty much never.

Magic is probably the best example of this.

I don't know, he's really raised his play to a whole new level in these playoffs.  Obviously having 3 probable HOF-ers on your team never hurts, but I doubt most Celtics fans were expecting him to be this good so soon.

I'm glad that his performance in Round 1 has given me a new face for my "NBA players I hate" list, because most of them are retired or on the downside of their careers.

[Gilly]

I really wish college basketball would cease to exist as much as I love March Madness. It would make the NBA a much better league because maybe then we could see a solid minor league NBA system. Teams would be able to control how long a player needs at a lower level before coming up to the NBA instead of players coming out after 1-2 years, sitting on the bench and bringing their progression to a grinding halt. Right now, you have the NBA developmental league, but for most draft picks, that is a step back from the competition they were facing in college so it's useless. Plus, teams would be able to coach a player their style of basketball instead of the style of a coach looking to win collegiate championships. A working minor league system would be so huge for the NBA.

[namethebats]

Best-of-seven is way too many games for the first round.  The idea that the first round of the NBA Playoffs is better than the first round of the NCAA Tournament - 32 single elimination games in 2 days, wall-to-wall from noon to past midnight, with 2 to 4 games going on at a time - is laughable.

Laughable, I say!

I love the NBA playoffs, but I miss the best-of-five first rounds from the 80s and 90s. If nothing else, I'd like to see first round games revert to best-of-five if the losing team hasn't won a game yet. That might rule out the basketball equivalent of the '04 Red Sox, but that Cavaliers-Pistons bloodbath would've been one game shorter.

[cron]

[scratchbomb]

Best-of-seven is way too many games for the first round.  The idea that the first round of the NBA Playoffs is better than the first round of the NCAA Tournament - 32 single elimination games in 2 days, wall-to-wall from noon to past midnight, with 2 to 4 games going on at a time - is laughable.

Laughable, I say!

I love the NBA playoffs, but I miss the best-of-five first rounds from the 80s and 90s. If nothing else, I'd like to see first round games revert to best-of-five if the losing team hasn't won a game yet. That might rule out the basketball equivalent of the '04 Red Sox, but that Cavaliers-Pistons bloodbath would've been one game shorter.

I agree. Every year, for every awesome first-round series, there's like 5 bloodbaths/snoozefests.

Also agree with Tom in re: college basketball. Actually, with college sports in general. College sports always strike me as intensely exploitative. All the money goes to the schools/coaches and the kids get run into the ground like rented mules.

[Come on, Jason]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWyVCGJswsk[/youtube]
 

[nec13]

Fan behavior at sporting events has become increasingly deplorable in recent years. People think because they pay for a ticket, they have the right to act like jackasses. That's one reason why I don't enjoy going to games anymore.

[dave from knoxville]

Fan behavior at sporting events has become increasingly deplorable in recent years. People think because they pay for a ticket, they have the right to act like jackasses. That's one reason why I don't enjoy going to games anymore.

It's also why I quit going to music shows years ago (unless I can get in for free.) Took my wife to see Elton John at a barn-style venue in Atlanta many years ago, and a guy directly in front of us kept dropping his pants to his ankles every time he got excited about the current song, so his ass was literally within 3-5 feet of our face. The third time it happened, I tapped him on the shoulder to tell him to stop, and he turned around quickly, in the process slinging the beer he was holding on the woman standing next to him, then started screaming at ME that I "made him" spill his beer, apparently oblivious to the fact that this woman was now wearing it. Was his **** hanging out? Yes, it was.

I walked over to the security guy to try to get him to throw this guy out. His response was along the lines of "He's just having fun, buddy, why you want to cause trouble?"

I guess I am in the wrong thread.

dave

[dave from knoxville]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWyVCGJswsk[/youtube]
 

You can understand her attraction to him; he's a real man's man.

Perhaps a Boston listener could pull his name from the police log, and we could write him a congratulatory note about how his peaceful protest "stuck it to the man".

[jbissell]

Where's Anthony Mason?