I can't believe what the NBA has come to be.  The NBA used to be a professional basketball league where teams used to constantly play hard to win games and win championships.  The league was all about basketball teams, about rivalries, about fans, and about magical last minute shots.  Today, however, the NBA is nothing else than individual basketball players, there are no rivalries, not too many fans, and games without enthusiasm. 

Anyone remember the NBA days of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson?  Those were the NBA days!  During the late 80's, the NBA became a leading professional sports league thanks to great basketball teams.  You had the Celtics, the Lakers, the Sixers (with Sir Charles), and later on the Bulls (with Jordan.)  Those were teams were each player gave up everything for their teammates and everyone excelled as a team.  Consider, for instance, the Celtics.  Although Larry Bird was the team Captain, you could ask everyone who plays for the Celtics besides Bird and they would answer anyone from Danny Ainge to the great Robert Parish.  We could say the same about Magic Johnson's Lakers or Jordan's Bulls.  

Yet, today, and arguably thanks to Jordan's notoriety and marketing efforts around him, the NBA has become a league where every rookie wants to become a megastar and forgets his teammates.  Jordan was a wonderful player because he made a LOT of attempts to the basket, but he couldn't be the wonderful player without his supporting cast.  Players such as Pippen and Paxon were good enough to distract the opponents when Jordan was not having a great game.  The Bulls could not win all those championships just with Jordan. 

The NBA has also become a league without classic rivalries, such as Lakers v. Celtics.  Now it's more about Melo v. Lebron and those matches do not create as much hype as the classic rivalries did.  Without team rivalries, the fans are just going to the games to watch Melo or Lebron dunk over some people.  You can watch that in a New York court for free!!  Without those great rivalries and team-playing mentalities, the NBA is now a professional sports league without sparks.  It's a flat league where there's more talk about dress codes than actual basketball games. 

It's sad that instead of people talking about the Heat v. Lakers game in respect of two good teams, they focus on Riley v. Jackson.  Come on!  I used to be a great fan of the NBA because I loved watching my beloved Celtics beat Magic Johnson's Lakers.  I loved bragging how Bird made great shots; how 'the Chief' beat Kareem in the boards; how Kevin McHale made some great hook shots; and how exciting was the whole game because the Celtics beat an amazing Lakers team.  Today, I rather watch NCAA basketball where I can still find this excitement.