<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">G eez, that didn't take long. Remember all those feel-good, team-first sentiments that swept the NBA after the Pistons won the championship in 2004? Remember the purported impact, that it would change the way teams were constructed, that it proved you could win without a superstar? Gone. Done. Rewind. Here we are, back where we started, with a singular force winning the NBA title, with Dwyane Wade officially restarting the superstar era. I suppose commissioner David Stern will authorize rings for the rest of the Heat, but I'm not sure why. Wade is phenomenal, so phenomenal he reduced Shaquille O'Neal to a bit player. Udonis Haslem, Antoine Walker and others were decent, but it could've been any batch of role players, which is pretty much what Pat Riley proved when he rearranged that roster. And now it's over, our naove notion the NBA was ready to celebrate rugged, complete-team basketball. The league worships creativity and individuality, and that won't ever change. Listen. Dallas didn't deserve the title. Dirk Nowitzki is no Wade and the cushy-soft Mavericks melted, starting with their owner, Mark Cuban, who merrily turned the league's officiating debate into an excuse. I'm not surprised the Heat won because, in case we forgot, once an NBA superstar is ready to leap, there's no stopping his ascent. But I swear, Miami might be the most one-dimensional NBA champion ever. You can view that dimension from any angle and it always returns to Wade, who will win four or five titles before he's done, unless LeBron James swipes a few. Pistons must change This is what the NBA craves, and this is why the Pistons have to evolve. Someone in that starting five has to elevate, or Joe Dumars has to alter it, because it will be difficult the next few years if you don't have a superstar making superstar plays --and getting superstar calls. I won't join the conspiracy theorists and suggest Stern has an electronic chip planted in referees' heads and zaps them to call fouls. But as much as we griped that the NHL didn't let its stars be stars, the NBA goes ridiculously the other way. Wade shot 25 free throws in Game 5, including the winning pair after a horrible call. He shot 21 in Game 6, although to be fair, Dallas was forced to foul him. 'Superstar' perks The NBA can be entertaining, but it does have a credibility problem. When everyone -- from fans to media to coaches to players -- acknowledges there are "superstar calls," then Stern should be concerned. Does any other league tacitly accept that label? Is a pitch to Brandon Inge called differently than a pitch to Albert Pujols? The Pistons' title was wonderful, but finding their way back to the top won't be easy. They've already felt the wrath of the new hands-off rules. That's not an excuse. It's an admission, from the days of Magic and Bird and Jordan, that the NBA has a formula, tried and oh-so-true. No, the league isn't rigged. It just knows what it wants, what it thinks fans want, and has never been bashful about acknowledging it. The Pistons are forewarned, again. </div> Source Great article, historically this is how the NBA has operated. In an interview on ESPN the other day Stern acknowledged the Governing Board wants to market the players of the league more than ever. Stern took over the NBA during the 1980's and has always felt this was the best era of basketball. Trying to resurrect the Magic-Bird rivalry, has been his goal since he took over. Now he has two young superstars to work with in Wade and LeBron. Ultimately one might end up in the Western Conference.
very sad. This is exactly what simmons was talking about in the article I posted. This postseason could have ushered in a golden renaasance of team basketball, but the just couldnt pull their heads out of their butts and realize whats best for the leauge.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting olskoolFunktitude:</div><div class="quote_post"> very sad. This is exactly what simmons was talking about in the article I posted. This postseason could have ushered in a golden renaasance of team basketball, but the just couldnt pull their heads out of their butts and realize whats best for the leauge.</div> I don't know what golden age your talking about? but the whole team basketball thing with the spurs and pistons was killing the nba. rating were down, general fan interest was down scoring was down.
thats because they didnt play the right brand of team basketball. WIth the Spurs everthing was runt hru tim duncan. it was just give him the ball and wait for someone else to get open. The pistons flat out didnt score enough to be that entertaining. If every team was playing a more exciting, fast paced brand of team basketball like phoenix or at least like clippers or dallas the league would eventually become almost as popular as teh nfl and would become much more popular than mlb
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> WIth the Spurs everthing was runt hru tim duncan. it was just give him the ball and wait for someone else to get open </div> That's pretty much how the Lakers ran their offense in thier championship years, except it was through Shaq. However, those Finals were ones that were greatly watched and not called boring, even when the Lakers swept the Nets. What's the difference? Duncan is Duncan, he plays a post-up game almost like Shaq's and Manu Ginobili is as frantic and unpredictable and exciting as Kobe used to be (and still is), yet the Lakers get more attention. Furthermore, the Spurs also had with them a quick gem in Tony Parker, as well as Horry. It just depends on perception I think. The casual fan is much more interested in hearing about Kobe and Shaq bashing each other then the Spurs's playing the right way and in cohesiveness, winning with fundamentals. I actually don't find Spurs games to be boring at all, they are well executed and is comprable to any other game in the NBA (not withstanding are the Suns and Dallas brands of basketball). However, people call it boring before even watchign. If I had to cal la team boring, it would be the Pistons. I cvan't even say they play the same as the Spurs, cause they don't and everytime I watch them it is honestly a bore, regardless of the final score.
