NBA Playoffs: How Did We Get to This Point?

There was a point in my life were I could just start naming every single Pittsburgh Penguin player on the roster.

That era died at some point, it was way before the last lockout, but I assure you that didn't help my interest much.

However, the lockout did make me watch a lot more basketball.

I got so involved with the sport because of Tracy McGrady and a down year from my favorite football team- the Pittsburgh Steelers; I then started naming the bench players for most of the teams in the entire NBA.

Then somewhere along those lines I realized how much I hate Tracy McGrady, the unwillingness to call traveling, and just the overall concept of how the NBA works towards the end of the season.

Don't mistake what I'm about to say as me bashing the playoff system.

People come out of the woodwork every year complaining about the seeding and how a team below a .500 record could make the playoffs.

I'm not going to do that.

What I'm going to do is think out loud.

I want to know why I've lost interest in a game that I not only used to play, but enjoy watching very much.

I won't bellyache over traveling, or my dislike for the Cavalier faithful around me that won't pass up a chance to praise LeBron James.

But perhaps my lack of interest is because of the state the NBA has reached.

Is the way the playoffs are shaking out this year their fault? Absolutely not.

Is there something they could do about it? Probably.

Should they do something about it? No, not really.

Why all the fuss then?

Look, you have 16 teams in the playoffs, four rounds of play that all use the best of seven games format.

That is more than half of your entire league and two teams have the possibility of playing 28 playoff games. That is roughly 34% of their regular season.

The NFL has 12, which is roughly 38% of their entire league. Two teams have a chance of playing 4 games, which is only 25% of their regular season.

The NHL does it just like the NBA, only they mask their issues with a bogus points system. Don’t get me started on that one.

The MLB probably sets the toughest chances with only 27% of their teams making the post-season. Two teams have the possibility of playing 19 games, which is just 10% of their regular season.

Is that a problem?

When you have the eighth seeded Golden State Warriors knocking off the defending Western Conference champions, the Dallas Mavericks, I'm not so sure.

Then again, since 2003- the first year they started playing 7 games, the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference has only one four games; three coming from the Magic the first year, and the other coming from the Bucks in 2006.

 Take a peak at the standings this year, and all of these things hold true coming into Saturday's action.

Western Conference

Nine teams in contention, all above .500 in record.

Portland, the tenth best team is already eliminated from playoff contention with an even .500 record.

No division has been clinched and only two teams have clinched births.

Only two and a half games separate the sixth seed Houston from the top seed, New Orleans.

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