Top Reasons to Watch Baseball Instead of the NBA Playoffs

For sports fans, this is a terrific time of the year as baseball season is now in full swing while the NBA playoffs are moving closer to their conclusion.

While this is a great time to be a sports fan, it often times leaves you having to choose what to watch as more than one event is generally on.

So why would you want to watch a regular-season baseball game over a postseason NBA game? Well here are my eight reasons why I would choose to do just that.

There's No Flopping in Baseball

There may be nothing more frustrating to watch in all of sports than grown men flailing to the ground in fake pain in an attempt to draw a foul.

LeBron James' flop against the Knicks was legendarily awful, but it is an epidemic that has made the NBA hard to watch in recent years.

Baseball is far from a contact sport, but you won't see players falling to the ground in pretend agony on the baseball diamond anytime soon.

Web Gems

Basketball games routinely put rim-rattling dunks and authoritative blocks onto SportsCenter's Top 10, but each night on Baseball Tonight brings about a full segment of the day's top defensive gems.

When it comes to terrific baseball plays, each day you could see something you've never seen before or something you may never see again.

Both sports have their fair share of eye-opening plays, but baseball takes the cake when it comes to highlight-reel moments night in and night out.

No Stephen A. Smith

There are undoubtedly some basketball fans out there who like the commentating of one Stephen A. Smith, but I would not be among them.

From his nasally voice to his obnoxious facial expressions to the nonsense that spews out of his mouth, Smith is both hard to look at and listen to.

His arguments with Skip Bayless on First Take are unbearable, but he does not simply annoy in the SportsCenter studios but also at halftime of many NBA games.

It has become a foregone conclusion that they will cut to Smith at one point or another during a basketball game. That's when I change the channel, and I have a funny feeling I'm not alone. 

Bryce Harper: Baseball's Chosen One

This season has brought about the debut of a number of the game's top prospects, but none has come with more hype than Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper.

Dubbed as "Baseball's Chosen One" and called "the most exciting prodigy since LeBron," Harper appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a 16-year-old high schooler.

He went on to skip his senior year of high school, got his GED and spent a year with a JUCO school to become draft eligible.

Now as a 19-year-old, he was brought up to give the upstart Nationals a spark and he has captivated the baseball world with his swagger at the plate and rocket arm in the outfield.

He's going to be around for a long time, but he's already one of the funnest athletes to watch in sports.

There Is Far More Parity in Baseball

There is a clear separation between the top of the heap in the NBA (Heat, Spurs, Thunder) and the rest of the pack, and because of that many of the upcoming series are either somewhat meaningless or largely a foregone conclusion.

On the other hand baseball, more so than any other sport, is a game where even the lowliest of teams can beat the best teams on any given day.

It is that parity that makes the long baseball season so much fun to watch, as even a team far from competing can knock off one of the top dogs any day of the week.

Baseball Equals Summer

Nothing quite exemplifies summer like a day at the ballpark, and while we are still dealing with the up-and-down weather that comes with spring, watching a ballgame certainly makes it feel like summer.

Basketball season begins during the cold of winter and is played indoors.

It may not seem like much, but with the first pitch of spring training summer is truly in sight. Even if the weather is bad you can always find a baseball game being played in the bright sun somewhere on TV.

Matt Kemp and Josh Hamilton

Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp and Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton are off to phenomenal starts this season, and anytime they come to the plate is must-see TV at this point.

Kemp currently has a .385 BA, 12 HR, 27 RBI line as he looks to make a run at the Triple Crown. He's currently leading the NL in batting average and home runs.

Unbelievably, Hamilton is having an even better season as he currently leads the AL in all three Triple Crown categories: 406 BA, 14 HR, 36 RBI.

Guys like Kobe and LeBron are supreme talents, but the way Kemp and Hamilton are playing right now is even more entertaining to watch.

Every Fanbase's Team Is Still Playing

At the conclusion of this upcoming weekend, the NBA playoffs will be narrowed down to eight teams. While that is terrific news for the fanbases of those teams, the rest of the NBA may have lost interest.

The NBA playoffs still have plenty of terrific games and memorable moments to come, but for fans whose teams are eliminated, an heir of indifference comes with watching the games from here on out.

So rather than watch a game you have no rooting interest in, why wouldn't you instead root on your favorite baseball team?