When asked about the future of Dwight Howard and where he will play next year; David Stern said something like "trade speculation of Howard going to a power house team is bad for the NBA"; or something along those lines. I would like to say David Stern is bad for the NBA.
Henry Ford is commonly quoted as saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity". The NBA needs any kind of publicity it can get. TV ratings of the NBA finals have been on a decline for many years in a row now and its safe to say that last year they hit the bottom. Last year the NBA playoffs got killed by the NFL draft. Were talking about one of the biggest series of the whole year being pummeled by the draft, not even a game, the draft. Has anyone ever considered watching an NBA draft or MLB draft? I don't think so. I'm not saying they took a hit, I'm saying nobody even knew a game was being played 5.4% of households in the US market watched the NFL draft. The NFL draft is people walking across a stage to wear a hat of the team that picked them.How can people consciously choose that over the NBA playoffs? The fact is the NBA hasn't had that kind of following since Michael Jordan's heyday.
Who's fault is it that the NBA sucks? David Stern is the one steering the ship, so if anyone needs to go overboard its him. Now he wants to tell us whats bad for the NBA. We already know whats bad for the NBA. Do you remember the Tim Donaghy scandal? Former NBA referee gets caught manipulating games for a financial profit. Donaghy is not trusted with anything he has to say but he raised some good points about the NBA executives telling them to call games a certain way to extend a series. He also said they were to keep the all stars in the game by not calling fouls on them.He described game manipulation being ordered from the top to help out ratings. The beauty of sports is that you don't need to tamper with it to make it good, and we can tell when its being tampered with. Sports is good enough by its self, it doesn't need to tampered or prodded any direction, let it be.
Have you ever watched NBA game that felt like torture? Almost all of them. The ball stops every 15 seconds so Kobe Bryant can go to the foul line...again. Then the ball stops again for another questionable call and passed in. Then Kobe Bryant goes to the foul line again. Then when the game develops any kind of flow, the game is stopped for a 20 second timeout that takes about 3 minutes and includes a commercial break. YOUR KILLIN' ME HERE, what channel is playing Dawsons Creek these days?
Some would say; that's basketball, that's how its played. Not the NCAA championship last year, Butler vs Duke had me glued to the TV from tip off to a near miracle shot finish. I held on to every play and did countless hail mary full of grace prayers that God would bless Butler with an upset of a lifetime. It was one of the greatest basketball games I've ever seen because they let the players play. The ball didn't stop every 15 seconds because the "Kobe clock" went off...time for more free throws. It was a sporting event for the ages and it can't be the same sport that David Stern runs.
How is it that an NCAA game can be so much better than NBA game? Because it has the qualities of a playground hustle that you and I can experience any time we take our ball to the nearest court, its something we can relate to. It includes one of the greatest tournaments in sports. As far as tournaments go the NCAA is topped only by the World Cup and that only happens every 4 years.
So how do you take such a great sport and turn so many people away? I don't know, maybe we should ask David Stern he seems to know whats "bad for the NBA".
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