EDITORIAL KEVIN’S KORNER: The NBA Is Interesting Again

The NBA is back and for the first time, in what feels like a long time, I actually care.

Let me back up. Growing up, I loved watching the NBA. It was probably my favorite sport to watch. I was, and to this day still, am a huge Chicago Bulls fan. I was too young to watch Michael Jordan, but I enjoyed watching the “Baby Bulls” era in the early and mid 2000’s. The Bulls at that time were led by players like Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, and of course Derrick Rose.

However, once I got to high school something happened in the NBA that changed everything, and that was the start of the “Big Three” era and the Super Teams that dominated the 2010s. My main problem with that period in NBA history was how predictable the sport seemed to have become. From 2010-2018, one could predict what the finals matchup was going to be pretty easily. It was either whatever team LeBron James was on, against whatever team made it out of the Western Conference, or later on, it was the Golden State Warriors vs Lebron James.

It was predictable and that meant, in my eyes, it was boring. One of my favorite things about sports is how unpredictable it can be. So, as the NBA followed an uninteresting pattern, I found myself paying more attention to college basketball, college football, and the MLB, which all seemed to be more unpredictable.

However, in the last four years or so, I have slowly found myself paying more attention to the NBA. The main factor for that has to be that the Super Team era is, in my opinion, no more. Sure we have seen teams like the Brooklyn Nets, The Los Angeles Clippers, or Phoenix Suns attempt to make their own Super Team. But those were all failures that blew up in their teams’ faces.

Now, for the first time, in what seems like a long time, the NBA is not dominated by one or two teams. In the last five years, five different teams have won the NBA Championship, and more importantly, the teams that have won don’t look like copies of each other.

Is it completely unpredictable now? Does it feel like every team has a solid chance of making a deep run into the playoffs? The answers to those questions are no, and no. That said, it is nice not going into the season with a feeling of total apathy.

LEARN LABOTKA

FAVORITE NBA PLAYER GROWING UP/WHY: Derrick Rose. Simply because, before all his injuries, he was the most exciting player I had ever seen. Every game there seemed to be a moment from Rose, where I asked myself ‘How did he do that?’

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP THREE BASKETBALL TEAM MASCOTS (NBA/NCAA):

1. Benny the Bull (Chicago)

2. Butler Blue (Butler Univ.) - that’s where I went to school and I love dogs; also got to pet him while in school.

3. The Raptor (Toronto) - I love dinosaurs and raptors are some of my favorites.