<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Forget about who's winning the championship. I'm starting to feel like the future of the NBA is at stake. We just spent the past two months raving about the "New And Improved" NBA -- end-to-end action, loads of points, dramatic endings, a new generation of superstars coming into their own, coaches and owners willing to think outside the box. And Dallas personified everything that was happening. The Mavericks could play small, they could play big, they could play fast, they could play slow ... talking about them almost made me feel like Rollergirl describing Dirk Diggler. Their offense revolved around a 7-foot German who created a new form of post-up offense, setting up shop at the foul line and destroying defenders in a variety of ways. They had an answer for everything. That was the best thing about the Mavs -- their unpredictability. You never knew what to expect with them. Unfortunately, they still had to get through Miami -- an old-school, MJ Era-type team with one superstar (Wade), another All-Star (Shaq), some overpaid pieces that didn't quite fit and a famous coach. Everything about them is predictable -- one guy creates every shot in crunch time, everyone else stands around and watches him, and every once in awhile those guys get to shoot an open jumper or finish a nice dish. This recipe would be boring if it weren't for Wade, a dynamic talent and the most consistent crunch-time scorer since Jordan. But that's the problem: In between Jordan and Wade, we had to watch all the wannabes pretending to be as good as them. And they weren't. Not even close. Dwyane Wade Jesse D. Garrabant/Getty Images If Miami wins the title, the new NBA slogan may be: "Free throws! They're FAN-tastic!" Here's what happens if Miami wins the title: New Jersey will say to themselves, "Hey, maybe this could happen to us with Vince Carter"; Washington will say the same about Arenas; Boston with Pierce; G-State with Richardson; the Lakers with Kobe; New Team X with Iverson. And so on and so on. But that's just the thing ... we went through this last decade. There was only one MJ; the formula couldn't be replicated. Same with Dwyane Wade; only LeBron can match him. And everyone else will fail trying, which means we can look forward to another decade of perimeter scorers going 11 for 32 in big games, teammates standing around while stars dribble at the top of the key waiting to challenge two defenders at once, and refs deciding every big game (like in Game 5) by how they interpret contact when the same guy is recklessly driving to the basket over and over again. Does any of this sound fun to you? I didn't think so.... </div> link:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/060620 I think Simmons makes a good point. You could go other way and say that Miami winning is better for the league because now they can milk the hell out of the Wade/Lebron matchup for years and years to come. But it would be better if the league was moving towards favoring teams that had more entertainign, aesthetcially pleasing team basketablll
The rules favor smallball more and more. I think teams realize this, even though Dallas fell short of the championship. The way to succeed is with versatile, dynamic wing players. The reason Miami won is because they just happened to have the best wing player in the series (and, arguably, in the entire league) on their team.
I think Simmons feels like a dumbass. He wrote a huge article praising Dirk as one of the greatest playoff performers in NBA history. Then Nowitzki just vanished in the finals.
Just another prediction of NBA failiure that wont come true. Why does a certain team winning have to be better for the game? What happened to the days where the best team was the one that won? Now its all about which team we can market the league around, its getting quite ridiculous.
Dallas runs ISO plays as much as any other team. Their Ast/FGM ratio was near the bottom of the league. I don't understand his point.
