For years, people (myself included) have complained that the NBA regular season is completely useless. Since draft order is determined by lottery, and since the playoffs are three months long, what precisely is the point of a regular season? They could play eight games to square out the seedings, it seems. As a result, I don’t pay attention to the regular season at all (though it’s not like I even pay attention to the playoffs much). But this season has felt a little weird—in that I’m starting to suspect that they aren’t playing the games at all, opting instead for a fan-interactive, American Idol-esque soap opera that stretches from Autumn through Winter. First, Ron Artest got his wish to spend the winter hyping his hip-hop album granted and was suspended for the season for being part of a fan brawl in Auburn Hills. Then last week I read about Latrell Sprewell getting into the shit with a female fan. And now, I read about The Postman’s trying to deliver a package for Kobe’s wife. Every NBA story I’ve read this year involved the stands, not the court. Am I even ok in posting this under “Baseball and Sports”? Is the NBA turning into MTV, where only two letters in the acronym (“NA” and “TV”) apply anymore, though the third was at one point a necessary condition?
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