Another member of the choir here. The NBA has had problems for years, but seems not to care about fixing them.
bjohn: You’re damn right about Jordan. IMO, if the refs had called the game honestly in the '90’s, Chicago would have had two less championships as New York should have won one year, and Indiana should have won another.
GoHeels: You may be biased, but you’re dead right. Any Indiana University fan, The Peyote Coyote included, agrees with you.
PatrickM: What is most sickening about the ACC is the way most major announcers kiss that conference’s overrated collective ass. Did you catch the bit in the 2002 Final Four where Billy “I am so stupid, I make a begonia look like Albert Einstein” Packer was just about to cry because Virginia did not make the NCAA field. What goddam difference did it make at that point whether the Cavaliers were in the tournament or not? They sure as hell weren’t going to beat Oklahoma, Maryland, Kansas, or Indiana.
Since this is the pit, screw the ACC. And while we’re at it, kick the Nittany Puddy Tats out of the Big 10 and go back to the way the conference was. The Big 10 had the only honest way of determining a conference championship, but the deranged Communists who run the universities sold out the fans for more money.
Well, discounting that strike-shortened season when the Spurs won (remember all those sloppy games that year that ended with scores like 75-72, it was like watching the Knicks and Heat play every game ) Then the last non-repeating champion would be whoever won the 1990 championship, which off the top of my head I think was the Pistons, wasn’t that the year they beat the Blazers?
Since then we had 3 Chicago championships, then 2 Houston championships when MJ was playing baseball or something, then 3 more Chicago championships, then the strike year, then 3 LA championships. (Wow, that’s 9 Phil Jackson championships in 12 years, that’s Wooden-esque.) It’s amazing how conducive the NBA seems to be to creating dynasties.
But all those teams, IMHO, earned those titles. Houston didn’t have anything handed to them, they were down 3-1 to the Suns in the '94 conf semis, and they needed miracle 3’s the rest of the way out, but they showed alot of strength doing it, and Hakeem was quite simply outstanding. That '94 Series against the Knicks, amidst the OJ scandal breaking, was IMHO the last classic finals series. Starks and Maxwell hitting everything in sight, back and forth, amazing. And remember the way Hakeem just totally schooled Shaq in the '95 finals when they swept the Magic? (Wow, this is making me remember how much I used to love the NBA.)
The reason there are dynasties now, the Lakers in particular, is that the East is simply anemic and everyone in the West is just psyched out by the Lakers. And don’t discredit the common element of those 9 teams in 12 years that won it all, maybe he’s got something to do with this. He just seems to know how to get superstar players to quit their in-fighting and give it everything they’ve got come playoff time.
) Then the last non-repeating champion would be whoever won the 1990 championship, which off the top of my head I think was the Pistons, wasn’t that the year they beat the Blazers?