Texas Chuck wrote:No one is going to be able to hear it sadly what with all the hot take mentality that has taken over the GB, but he's making a solid point:
It's so anti-climatic that no one really cares outside Warrior's fans. At least the Patriots struggle to win all their Super Bowls which draws interest from so many rooting against them. This is like the UConn women, they have 10 of the best 20 players in the country often including 3 of the top 5 and so its just boring.
No offense to Warriors fans who owe no apology for enjoying this. But for the average NBA or sports fans its boring.
Can I be honest here? Personally, I pretty much stop caring about the playoffs the moment that my team gets disqualified. I believe that most other fans who follow particular teams feel the same way (or similar enough, at least). It goes with being a fan, a fanatic. You follow one team all year long, you stay up late to watch them every night (that's mostly for us who live in different time zones but still), you are happy when they win and sad when they lose. You cannot get this kind of connection with any other team. Sure, you can like some teams or players more than you like others but if they aren't the team that you followed all year long then the connection simply isn't as strong.
As for the Finals being anti-climatic. I started following the NBA in the lockout season. I don't remember a single NBA champion that was a surprise. We have 3 titles by the Warriors, 3 titles by LeBron-led teams and 1 title by the Spurs. If we take a look at the years before that then only two surprises stand out. Your Mavericks in 2011 and the Heat in 2006 (ironically, both of these Finals series was a Mavs-Heat match-up). Yes, these are the runs that one can look back with awe and make 30 for 30 about exactly because they were a relative surprise. Because those teams weren't dynasties. They weren't the favorites to win it all but they won it anyway. The rest? Meh, you could see them coming. Those teams were among the favorites and they did what they were supposed to do. That isn't meant to say that their championships mean less, of course. Every title is important for the team that wins it and is a testament to their hard work. No one can take anything away from them. It's just that as a fan I don't really find it interesting when the favorites win.
And that's really what the NBA has always been about. It's not about surprises. It's about the favorites. That's what happens when you have series that last 7 (or 5 as they used to) games. We aren't talking about single elimination games where anything can happen. We're talking about long series and long series have always favored the better team. That's what the NBA for. It's about rewarding the better teams and solidifying dynasties. That's why upsets are relatively rare (and most of the time they aren't even really upsets since there are specific match-up reasons why they happened). That's great for the teams themselves because they know that if they build a good squad they are most likely going to get rewarded for it but it does make it more predictable than other leagues.
So, no, I didn't follow this Finals series. I only saw the 4th quarter of game 3 on replay and the 2nd quarter of game 4 while half-asleep. But that doesn't have anything to do with the Warriors dominating. I haven't watched any of the previous Finals either, even those who were close. Because in the end it was still two favorites battling it out and that's just not very appealing to me as a neutral fan.
Finally in 2018! 16 year wait!
