Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard—so much of professional basketball nowadays is based on the single player.
No one ever looks at it like they once did in the 80s and before that. You don't hear people on the street saying, "Man, the Lakers are an overall great team," or "That was a great game between two stellar performing teams." It's always, "How many points did Kobe have?" or "Did you see LeBron's crossover?"
I'll admit that I do the same stuff but I really just enjoy watching two TEAMS go at each other and try to win a basketball game. That's why I love watching old NBA tapes that just have those great teams such as the Pistons v Celtics games or the battle of Texas (although it was a new rivalry that did not always happen every year).
But the past is not why I write this article. I'd like to tell you about the NBA today and which conference is better. Many would argue that the Western Conference is far better than the East but I disagree that they are a whole lot better.
To say that it's not even close is just ignorant.
A good example of the superiority being nonexistent is this past weekend and week so far. The Pistons beat the Suns by 30 after the Suns only beat the struggling Celtics who played an AWFUL game by 7 or 8 points. The Hornets lost to the Wizards who are 27-29.
I mean I am a Eastern Conference fan and know that the Western Conference is better but to call them superior is ridiculous. Just don't say stuff that does not make sense.
9 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Anonymous about 1 year ago
Well the thing is you can't take into account only one game as your sample space. The NBA is about consistency over a marathon season. The bottom line is the western conference has many more consistently good teams. As it stands now a team that won't make the playoffs in the west (with 47-48 wins) could've made the playoffs in the east as a 4th seed. That right there is the most direct evidence that the west is superior. The east isn't a strong conference because there are only 2 good teams with 2 sl above average teams and everyone else isn't that great. On the other hand the West has about 4 good teams with 4 above average teams, hence the claim that the West is superior.
The Pistons are a good team and thats what happens when a good team dials in and the opponent is not ready. And the Celtics didn't play an awful all round game against the suns as you made it sound, they just played poorly on the offensive end. The held a high scoring suns team to only 85 points thats playing very good on the defensive end. And the Hornets loss came to a wizards team that has been close in many games in their recent struggles, they've lost a lot of heart breakers in the past couple of weeks it was only a matter of time till it went their for once. But to base your claim that people saying the "west is superior is ridiculous" on only 3 games and 2 from the same suns team...that's not good evidence. Look at the whole season and you'll see it makes perfect sense to say the West is superior.
That being said, it does not mean that the NBA champs will be from the western conference. Both the Pistons and Celtics would be good no matter what conference they're in. But overall, the west is the best and the east is by no means a beast.
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Andrew Ungvari about 1 year ago
You obviously don't live in L.A. or you'd hear people saying things like "Man, the Lakers are an overall great team,..." all day long. People can't get over the fact that when this team is at full-strength their 11th best player is Luke Walton and their 12th man is Chris Mihm.
It's not far-fetched to call the Western Conference superior. Do you really wanna compare head-to-heads amongst each team in both conferences?
If you wanna make the argument that the top two teams in each conference are equal then you can make the case. But when one conference has ten teams over .500 and the other has five, it's not far-fetched too declare one conference superior.
Calling them superior is not ridiculous. At least not as much as saying they're equal is.
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Andrew Ungvari about 1 year ago
One more thing....
You asked "what happened to the NBA?" If you haven't noticed, this is the single GREATEST NBA season of my 31 years on earth.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Did you write this article after catching the tail end of sports center last night or something? It's the most least thought out article I have ever read. You spout a bunch of opinions and then pull out two recent facts which you feel back up those opinions. How about you list next to those two East victories, all the victories the West has had over the East. The list would be long, believe me. The East is simply terrible. They have worse GMs, worse coaches, and no stability compared to the teams in the West. I mean without the re-emergence of Boston this season, where would the East really be? Teams that potentially miss the playoffs out west would have home court in the East. Nuff said.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
DISCREDITED...
Western Conference Win % (all 15 teams) - .470
Eastern Conference Win % (all 15 teams) - .530
Considering that it would take more than 3.25 additional wins PER EASTERN CONF TEAM at this stage in the season JUST TO BE EVEN with the WEST; I'd conclude this margin is substantial enough to say the Western Conference is SUPERIOR to that JV League in the East.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Strike that, Reverse It... (Willy Wonka...)
Western Conference Win % - .530
Eastern Conference Win % - .470
Woops... See; this is why I DON'T write BAD ARTICLES FOR the BR...
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Interesting ... I'm guessing you dropped the *ignorant* word for controvesy -- East readers cheer you, West readers yawn.
Let the League (Stern & Co) change the playoff format so that the 16 best teams by record get in.
Then we would have an objective measure to evaluate what you mean by -better- vs -superior-
(Today, that would have 10 West and 6 East teams in. West with almost TWICE as many teams in)
FYI ... my thesaurus says those two words (better, superior) are Synonyms :)
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
about 60-70% of the East is rebuilding. Their stars are heading West: Kidd, Shaq, etc. The West is making history with 10 potential 50 win teams. You need about 52-55 wins to make the playoffs out West. The East have legit teams in the Pistons, Celtics, and possibly the Magic. I hold off judgment on the Cavs because 1) Their trade may not work and 2) They have a mediocre record that looks about 45-47 wins. The West has the most ridiculous depth and you can't fall asleep in any games. It's a tight race and the depth charts for these teams are unbelievable. Spurs, Mavs, Lakers, Hornets, Jazz, Suns are the best...then your second tier teams are still unbelievable: Rockets, Warriors, Blazers...Second Tier teams in the East don't exist because its a wash...Wizards? Heat? Sixers? Knicks? I would love to play these teams four times a season than the ones out West. You need psychiatric evaluation.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
seriously one of the most ignorant writers out there: barely even thought this through and made a desperate attempt at trying to back his poorly formed opinions with a few of the most recent examples. by your logic, you would be lead to believe that that minnesota has a shot at a championship just cuz they beat the suns several times.
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