This is the most exciting time of year if you are a sports fan. Baseball season is underway while we are being treated to the NHL’s Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs.
Well, actually, we are being treated to just the Stanley Cup playoffs. I can’t say the same about the NBA no matter how much people and other media outlets try to sell it.
As always, this year’s NHL postseason has been as thrilling and entertaining as ever. The lowest seed in the Western Conference, the Nashville Predators, have made their first-ever conference final after sweeping the top-ranked Chicago Blackhawks and disposing of the St. Louis Blues in six games.
We also have two Game 7’s on Wednesday night to further build the already palpable drama.
The Edmonton Oilers, a team making their first playoff appearance in 11 years, and their 20-year-old captain Connor McDavid travel to Anaheim to face the Ducks.
If that wasn’t good enough, two of the greatest players of this generation, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, will create a thrilling finale when the Washington Capitals host the Pittsburgh Penguins for all the marbles.
That’s what makes a postseason great; when two evenly matched teams push each other to the brink.
In no way can you say this about the NBA playoffs.
There’s no parity. None whatsoever. Everyone is competing to lose to either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Golden State Warriors.
Yet the league and the major media outlets covering it are going to pretend like every first- and second-round game is the sporting gods’ gift to fans everywhere.
It’s not.
The Cavaliers and Warriors haven’t lost a game in the first two rounds as they will likely meet in the NBA Finals for the third consecutive season.
In the last three Stanley Cup Finals, there have been six different teams involved. That’s unpredictability. That’s drama. That’s what fans want.
Are we really going to concern ourselves with the poor teams that are grinding to play them in the conference finals?
What’s the point?
Call me when the finals start. Maybe I’ll tune in if the referees actually let the players play, grown men stop flopping under minimal contact and stop asking for even more whistles.
