The Ruination of the NBA...

First, you better believe I went there with "Your Chicago Bulls". Cue up the Allen Parson's Project (speakers needed). Get the Brooms out. Secondly despite, the absence of Hibachi (great reference, BE) and that loss by the artists formerly known as the Jordanaires, the Playoffs as a whole are sweet right now. There are clashing styles and old school brands of basketball in every series. We have a legitimate feel good story in Derek Fisher, a sheer underdog in Golden State, perennial fan favorites in Chicago and Phoenix, and a one man team actually performing the way a one man team should (i.e. an anti-Kobe brand of basketball) in Lebron James and the Cavaliers. So why is it that I'm dreading the approaching NBA Finals right now? Its because of that picture right there...that series was barely watchable 2 years ago. All of the good work and good will the NBA will have generated this postseason will be for naught if that matchup right there comes to fruition in June. This series is not even for the basketball purist. Two defensive juggernauts, no bona-fide charasmatic superstars (Timmy Duncan does not count), and scores in the low '80s will not be enjoyable for anyone outside of San Antonio and Detroit. It'll be another crapfest of brilliantly executed half-court offenses with stifling defenses and zero fastbreak points. If its gonna play out that way, you have to at least give me some hard fouls, bad blood, cheap shots and a Rasheed Wallace primordial scream/meltdown. I doubt we'll even get that though. It'll be like the Houston-New York series circa 1994 that was pre-empted by "The Juice" fleeing the cops on LA highways in a white Bronco (or as I like to think of it, the day that changed the rest of my life...especially given my unfortunate career choice).

So NO! Give me a Phoenix/G-state matchup in the Western Conference Finals (please oh please oh please make this happen....ultra-religious former Laker Michael Thompson even claims that God wants to see that matchup), followed by the winner playing anyone from the East. Or give me a Bulls/Spurs matchup at the worst. Just don't give me a Spurs-Pistons matchup. Right when the NBA is on the cusp of being BACK, of ditching one of the two bad raps it has going for it (slow boring play and a thug image....don't get me started on the latter which is just a bunch of hypocricies of white people who blame the NBA but look the other way when it comes to the NFL), this finals matchup would ruin it all. Unless the Bulls pull off a 2004 Red Sox miracle or suddenly become the '96 Bulls, the Pistons will crush the rest of the East. And San Antonio is already up 2-1 on the Suns. The End is coming. Someone get the commissioner on the line, and let's see if we can get Joey Crawford reinstated so he can ref this Suns-Spurs series now, before its too late.