The State of the NBA

I've never been a huge NBA fan.

I watched some of the playoffs with Jordan. I remember rooting for Utah to upset the Bulls in 98. I remember rooting for the Kings to knock off the Lakers during their dynasty. Throughout college I fell even more in love with the NCAA tournament, and the NBA was always second fiddle.

Until this year when the Warriors provided some May Madness and stunned Dallas. And Deron's Jazz pulled out a game 7 win on the road. The bar was set high for the Conference Semifinals. This is what it should have been:

• A rebirth of a classic Eastern rivalry: is this the year when the youth of the Bulls takes over from the talented team success of the Pistons.
• An Eastern shootout between teams led by All-Stars.
• A wild showdown in the west between two rebuilding teams.
• An epic 7-game battle between the best two teams still alive in the playoffs.

In case you didn't notice, none of those came true. The NBA playoffs fell flat, and doesn't seem to have much juice left in the tank.

Here's a recap of my Conf. Semifinal picks, with what really happenned.

Pistons in 5 (Pistons in 6)
Cavs in 6 (Cavs in 6)
Spurs in 7 (Spurs in 6)
Warriors in 6 (Jazz in 5)

Well, looking forward I think it's going to be:

Spurs in 5
Pistons in 6

Excuse me while I barf on my keyboard.






I'm back. Unless the Jazz magically have a run in them, or LeBron becomes LEBRON, I'm officially over the 07 playoffs.

But...It's probably just because of Simmons, but I'm very interested in the Lottery tomorrow. Will the tanking payoff for Memphis and Boston? The only good team with a lottery pick is the Bulls, what if they land a top-2 spot? It should be interesting.