I n case you missed it, the NBA kicked off its season last week when the Miami Heat hosted the Bulls on Halloween. On the same night the Heat received their championship rings and raised their 2005-06 championship banner, the defending champs got humiliated in a 108-66 blowout loss to Chicago.
The loss may have more to say about the force the Bulls will be this season than the Heat's embarrassing performance. With the major free-agent acquisition of former Piston Ben Wallace, one of the league's best defenders, the Bulls have realistic championship aspirations.
I think the larger issue, however, is that many people didn't even pay attention to the NBA season's kickoff. Sports fans were more interested in who to start this weekend in their fantasy football lineup or how the West Virginia-Louisville show down would pan out, than how many points Shaq scored in the season opener.
The only discussions I have heard regarding the NBA season so far are referring to the new "The Lebrons" TV commercial. I am not a big fan of Lebron -- especially after how he whispered in Gilbert Arena's ear before Gil's free throws in Game Six of the Wizards-Cavaliers playoffs last season -- but the commercial where he dives into the pool is sweet.
The problem for professional basketball is that the regular season has 82 games and more than half the teams make the playoffs -- 8 of 15 in both conferences. Who cares about what happens during the regular season? Heck, it's not even special to make the NBA playoffs anymore. It's just a matter of staying out of the embarrassment of being the ones left out. (See New York Knicks last season ...)
It's no wonder professional and college football retains a strong fan base even at the start of a new NBA season -- their games mean something.
NFL Sundays are an all-day event -- a buddy of mine is getting to the stadium at 9 a.m. to begin tailgating for a 7 p.m. kickoff over Thanksgiving break. That's 10 straight hours of beer, BBQ and football. (Ain't that the life.) And of course there's the week of matchup analysis leading up to the games to get fans uber-pumped. With just 16 regular season contests and only 25 percent of the teams making the postseason, each game is do-or-die in the NFL.
College football is even more extreme as one loss likely knocks you out of championship competition all together. Sometimes even an undefeated season isn't good enough, but that's a whole other can of worms.
Just watch a regular season college basketball game and then an NBA one. The effort of professional players pales in comparison to their college counterparts. College players actually seem to know what defense is. One or two let-down games in the college ranks can keep you out of March Madness and teams begin with reckless abandon starting with the preseason tournaments.
Stepping back, it may not seem difficult to solve the issues of lack of competitiveness faced by leagues like the NBA. Just shorten the season some or allow fewer teams to the playoffs to make the regular season contests more meaningful.
But therein lies the problem: dinero. These leagues don't care if Lebron takes a day off or my man Arenas has an off-shooting night. The arenas may be half-full and some fans may be switching their television sets to BCS analysis or NFL match-up breakdowns, but the league continues to rake in the money.
With so many contests, the NBA can cash in on gazillions of dollars from television, radio and the Internet, merchandise sales and fan attendance throughout the never-ending season. What pressure do the owners and commissioners have to change the league to make the games more exciting to the fans, as long as their cash flow is steady?
In 2004 the NBA took in 2.1 billion dollars. Money seems to be at the backdrop of everything, especially with power-hungry professional sports owners. As revenues continue to remain steady in the billions, my dream for competitive contests in the NBA seems to be idealistic and -- with the exception of a complete revolt by the die hard fans -- unlikely to happen anytime in the near future.
What's that you say? Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, got fined again? Excuse me, I'll be right back. On second thought, I just heard ESPN has released an NFL fantasy ranking update for this weekend. Let's see Chris Chambers or Greg Jennings for my third wide receiver ...
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