2 years ago you couldn't pay me to sit down and watch an NBA game. I liked basketball just not the selfish NBA product, it was always the same thing, Kobe 1 on 1 against T-Mac while the other 8 players on the floor cleared out. No passing, no team play, very little dribbling, overall just a game of isolation for a team's star player. And if these star players couldn't get a dunk, chances are they were missing the shot. The influx of European players who are often much more fundamentally sound then the American players have exposed the lack of quality shooting that was prevalent in the NBA. Couple the lack of basketball skill with the boring defensive playing style of some of the recent champions namely the Spurs and the Pistons and the NBA was a ratings disaster, not to mention some of the off court attention some players were drawing to the league, but that's a whole other blog. So I'm sure your asking where is this going? Before last season started, my buddy Stu kept saying how great the NBA was and kept asking me to join his Fantasy Basketball league. I joined the league, thinking, ok I will just crunch the numbers and see what happens. What ended up happening was that I found myself watching NBA games again, and actually enjoying some of them. So while yes the Spurs and Pistons are still boring to watch, some teams like the Suns, Raptors, Mavs and Grizzlies are running and I mean running high speed offenses that are exciting to watch and have brought back some of the team game I remembered watching as a kid. As this NBA season is set to start, I find myself as excited as I get for Baseball and Football to start. So I thank my friend Stu, for bringing me back to the NBA and making it fun again, I also recommend that if their is anyone else like me, who had backed away from the NBA, join a fantasy league and rediscover the fun.
