Has the NBA become unwatchable?

Question

Those finals were horrid. Wade had almost 100 FT attempts in that series! It was brutal to watch ugly stoppage in play. Whistles everywhere. Back in the day Jordan would get pounded by Bird, Bill Lambier and Rick Mahorn and never went to the line more than 50+.

Answer 1

Let's be honest, Jordan went to the line whenever he wanted to; and the 90's Bulls and Knicks were unwatchable because they couldn't fill the hole and were content to rape and pillage on defense (until the hand-check was prohibited, post-Jordan's prime years).

It depends who you root for whether the NBA is unwatchable. The Suns, much as I don't like them, are a run and gun team that aren't horrible on defense and they are fun to watch.

The Pistons and Spurs are as good as morpheine, you can watch that stuff if you want a deep sleep to kill the pain.

The Heat, Lakers, Sixers and to a certain extent the Sonics and Hornets are fun to watch because they have one guy you have to guard or he will torch you (Wade, Kobe, A.I., Allen, Paul). LeBron is amazing, but the team around him is horrid and it impairs his game (where that's not so much the case with the other guys).

The NBA was fun to watch when Erving, Magic, Bird et al combined dazzle with defense, alley-oop with altruistic team play. Jordan did the razzle and got no ring, til his defense and jump shot improved, then the team got boring but won rings. It's just finding a balance between entertaining play and solid team execution. The Pistons and Spurs are solid, well-oiled machines, coaches love watching them play. D'Antoni in Phoenix is Westhead at LMU: Run your opponent into the ground (sometimes it doesn't work). The Lakers and Heat and Mavericks are a bit more watchable in that they have a few young players who are fun to watch and are coached in fundamentals (the perfect combo). But as long as Riley and Jackson are in the league, you're gonna get boring, slow, half-court, 10 passes to a hoop, basketball. It wins, it's just not pretty. Maybe some new coach will figure out how to combine run-n-gun with stifling defense and make a game of it again.

After the first 11 quarters of this year's finals, I thought the NBA was cooked. Mavs dominating, Wade an afterthought. Then the refs, the NBA and the networks figured it out and made some adjustments and voila! The Heat win four in a row, three of them really tight games. Wow, funny how that happens huh? Don't mistake it, the NBA is the one sport most affected by officiating, and that is probably the biggest reason it is sometimes unwatchable.

Answer 2

Yes I agree. Basketball is not the way it used to be. Although I'm only 13, the refs don't let players play. What the mess is the NBA now? The whole entire finals seemed like a regular season. The foul call is outrageous!!!! I'm sooo glad someone finally agrees with me.

Answer 3

I heard that!

Last night when Shaq and Wade were doin all their "thank you's", I said "they should go over and thank the refs first and foremost"

They would not have gotten past the Pistons if it wasn't for the ref's crappy calls. The Pistons would have beat down the Mavs....we got robbed!

Answer 4

yes especially for Maverics fans. It seems they were just a waste of three hours for 6 games so I wasted 18 hours on that

Answer 5

WHO CARES?

ALL I GOTTA SAY IS...

MIAMI HEAT BASKETBALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL...

ALL YALL HATERS NEED TO BOW DOWN

EVERYBODY WAS HATIN WHEN THEY WENT DOWN 0-2 BUT I SAID THEY WOULD WIN IN 6 EVEN IN MY OTHER ANSWERS

I WAS RIGHT & YALL LOOKIN REAL STUPID BOUT NOW

ALL THE ANALYSTS & COMMENTATORS WERE SAYIN DALLAS' BENCH WAS TOO DEEP BUT ALLLLLLLLLL YALL GOT PROVED WRONG

MIAMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII HEAT BASKETBALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

FYI MY TRASH TALKING WAS WAYYYYYYYYYYY B4 THEY WON..I KNEW THEY WERE GON WIN...CHECK MY OTHER ANSWERS

Answer 6

i agree with you you see if the players get to close to wade its automatic foul against them

Answer 7

No!There was action, suspense and drama.