In 2018, NBA fans saw the Cleveland Cavaliers face the Golden State Warriors for the fourth consecutive year, with the Warriors triumphing over the Cavaliers again for the third time.
Seeing the best player on earth, LeBron James, play against one of the best shooters of all time, Steph Curry, was an interesting matchup the first time around. However, the luster of this scenario has lost its intrigue come the fourth time around.
What’s even more pathetic is the fact that since 2011, two specific Eastern Conference teams have been in the finals every year. These two teams are the Miami Heat and the aforementioned Cavaliers.
The common trait between these two teams is that James has led them to the finals every year since the 2010-2011 season. James was with the Heat from 2010-2014, winning two championships in 2012 and 2013.
James has been to finals seven years in a row. Teams in his conference just can’t seem to beat him. Granted, James has been the best player on the planet for a number of years now, but seeing him lead either really stacked teams or a team full of bench warmers to the finals every year gets old fast and points out a problem with the league.
All it takes is one or two really good players to make one team stand out above the rest of the competition.
In the 2017-2018 season, James had a drastically inferior roster compared to most other teams in the Eastern Conference. However, the Cavaliers had James, which was all they needed to reach the finals. James essentially carried the team on his back through out the entirety of the post-season.
Parity and competition make the league interesting to watch. Without competition, why would anyone bother watching?
Most people likely predicted the 2018 NBA finals based on recent history.
Take a look at some other U.S. sports leagues.
The NFL’s New England Patriots have been dominant almost every single season since 2000. They’ve had arguably the greatest quarterback of all time in Tom Brady, since the turn of the millennium.
However, the Patriots have only been to the Super Bowl eight times since 2000. While they have played two different teams twice in the Super Bowl with Tom Brady, they have lost three of those appearances and rarely have a rematch with a team they’ve played before with the exceptions of the Philadelphia Eagles (2004 and 2018) and the New York Giants (2007 and 2011).
The Patriots with Brady went nearly a whole decade without winning a Super Bowl.
In the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins have been the most recent team to win the Stanley Cup in consecutive years. However, prior to the aforementioned Penguins repeat, the last Stanley Cup repeat occurred way back in the 1990s, with the Detroit Red Wings winning back to back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.
The fact that the Red Wings went to the playoffs 26 consecutive years (1991-2016) and only won the Stanley Cup four times in that time frame (1997, 1998, 2002 & 2008) speaks to the parity and level of competition present in the NHL.
I don’t have any solutions to fix the NBA’s parity problem, but you don’t have to be a well-educated basketball fan to see that there is an issue with the league.
Maybe the NBA should look at more balanced leagues like the NHL for inspiration.
