Is Basketball Season Over Yet?
Basketball hasn't been fun since Michael Jordan quit the second time. There was a time in the NBA when scoring 120 points in a game and losing was quite possible. Basketball's problems are not those of baseball. The NBA has a reasonable structure, its owners possess some business acumen, and the commissioner runs everything tolerably well. What the league lacks is excitement.
The LA Lakers, multiple champions, are the dullest team in town even when Shaq and Kobe are healthy and happy. The Washington Wizards are still Jordan and four other guys, and MJ is not what he once was. Sportswriters in New York gave up on the Knicks after McDyess broke his patella (why does it always hinge on one player?), and losing four straight.
It all comes down to scoring. Unlike his fellows in soccer and hockey, it is not all that hard for a professional basketball player to score. What makes basketball fun is the fast break, the alley oop, the three point shot, the slam dunk. There is no glory in working the ball up the court -- most 8-year-olds can do that. There is nothing fun about a give-and-go that goes nowhere. The Harlem Globetrotters have one of the greatest clown acts in the world, but they never forget to put some points on the board first.