NBA is craptastic!

Most of those near and dear to me know that I am not a big fan of the National Basketball Association. Tonight I tried to watch a few minutes of a game on ESPN and had to turn it off after just a few minutes. So tonight, in honor of the Association, I'm going to lay out why I don't like the NBA.

1. The way games are officiated. I hate that superstars "get calls" and everyone in the arena knows it, from the fans to the players to the refs. Kobe got brushed on the forearm? Foul! KG ran into someone on the follow through of a shot? Better head to the foul line. Some second round draft pick on his way to the basket gets massacred by Shaq? No whistle there--it's the rookie's fault for being so sucky.

1a. The jump-step. I've still never heard a compelling case as for how this isn't travelling. It does look cool, but what the heck?

2. Almost every team runs the same play over and over. Player X gets possesion of the ball on one side of the court. All other players on X's team head to other side of key. The isolation play is b-o-r-i-n-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh sorry, I mean "g".

3. Posting up. I hate that everyone on the team except for whoever happens to have the ball sits around the top of the key waiting for something to pass them the ball for an open three pointer. Of course you're open--you are a seven foot tall lerp who should be playing 5 feet from the basket, not 22 feet away!

4. The pay scale. Apparently, I'm not the only one who hates this. Just for fun, I created the following chart. It shows an interesting relationship between the average salary for an NBA player (adjusted for inflation) vs. the average NBA finals rating. Tell me if you don't see two very different relationships.

5. The unbelievable stupidity and arrogance of certain players (think Stephon Marbury).

5. I'm sure I could think of more reasons, but I need to go check out the MLB and NFL sections on ESPN. Maybe there will be some sort of sporting news I care about. Oooh, it looks like John Beck will start for the 'phins this Sunday!