With another season starting, the National Basketball Association (a.k.a. “The NBA” to you and me) faces more problems than any other pro sports league.
You may ask: “How can you possibly say that?” “Football has their top team accused of cheating and a big star being convicted.” “Baseball has steroid scandals, poor ownership, salary issues and the fact that the division between a winning team and a losing team is measured in millions of dollars.”
And those are all true. But that shit ain’t a problem. Even things such as the gambling problem involving referees isn’t that much of an issue; those things fade away. And they pretty much already have, what with everyone talking about free agency moves and what team Kobe will score forty points a night for this season. So, what is the problem? Well, the main problem that the NBA has that no other league is facing is clearer than a sunny, hot October day: Their best team is also the least popular and, even worse, a ratings killer.
Last June, the NBA ran a championship final between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the San Antonio Spurs. The series lasted for only four games and the Spurs’ dominant victory was the lowest rated NBA finals in the league’s history. In a league overflowing with popular, marketable, insanely talented and amazing-to-watch players, the last Finals match-up featured a Cleveland team with one megastar. That megastar carried his mediocre group on his back while being overmatched by five guys who play together extremely well, but machine like and sleep inducing. ABC tried to play up the Spurs’ Q-rating by constantly showing Eva Longoria in the stands rooting on her fiance Tony Parker, but could anyone have picked Tony Parker out of a lineup? 
In a league filled with style, intensity, charisma and legit “wow” moments and players, the best team in the league is by far the most boring. The Spurs have created a situation in which they are not only the most dominant team, but a team that is already the favorite to win it all this year. This results in everyone changing the channel because they already know how this movie will end. The Spurs play defensive minded, slower paced, pass oriented basketball in which no particular player is the lone star. They draft well, sign the right guys and generally come off as faceless, emotionless robots. And they dominate. Not dominate in a manner like say the Patriots dominate and you either love it or view them as the Cobra Kai. Not dominate like the Yankees did, when you either bought shirts that said “got rings?” or lambasted them for being able to spend millions. The Spurs do everything on a completely fair level and their continued streak of victory may end up killing the league as we know it.
The funny part is that this era of teams and players shouldn’t have to have this ending. The last five years have given the league mega stars, great combinations, charismatic players, controversial players and a diverse array of offensive styles. And, for the last few years, these teams have done very well, exciting the fans while running into the black hole of death upon passing through the city limits of San Antonio. It could be the salary cap structure, but really that’s helping the league more than hurting; after all, we need parity so we can have a different team get beaten into slumber by the Spurs every year.
In the 80s (and most of the 90s) the league was rolling in good fortune with the fact that the dominant teams had sparkle and character. The Lakers were “showtime.” The Celtics were the great rivals; the Pistons were working class; and the Bulls showcased Michael Jordan. This shit markets itself; you have your stars, the stars play and everybody loves it. There even looked to be a tiered system of successors in place after those teams came and went. Sure, the league got caught up in searching for the next Jordan, but they always missed out on the fact that while everyone was looking for that great one guy, upon waiting we all ended up getting unique and diverse stars such as Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and, later on, the great 2003 draft class of Dwayne Wade, Lebron and Carmello Anthony.
In essence, the NBA is almost stuck in a time warp between what it wants and what it had. The lone interesting factor about the Spurs is that their current era came about fifteen years too late. Had this team played in the 80s, we would be lumping them in with the rest and no one would be complaining of their play. The style they use was more in vogue then and the teams were deeper. Today’s league just isn’t geared toward what the Spurs bring, thus we have this problem. The 1980’s team playing the 2000’s: this creates an odd reality in which a Betamax goes up against DVD and the Betamax wins. The NBA wants the ratings they had in the 80s but wants it with the style and teams they have now. There is no real solution to this; either the Spurs run out of steam and end up on a downswing or the rest of the teams stock up and try and grab the title away. Regardless, if you’re a fan of the NBA, it’s a heavy time, as the league isn’t fighting against gambling or arrests - it’s fighting against itself. 
