NBA Playoffs May Be Exciting, But Association Still Sucks

While it's without question that Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony have done a phenomenal job in getting their teams to their respective conference finals, I still hate the NBA.

Basketball is a contact sport, yes. But what these NBA playoffs have shown us is that these so-called professionals have taken that contact to a whole 'nother level.

Even the "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons of the 1980s didn't beat up on opponents the way the players do in games today. And, what's worse, is that the officials let most of it go. And when they don't, the fouls are so heinous that flagrant fouls or technicals are common place.

When was the last time you watched a high school or college game with more than one flagrant and/or technical foul? I cannot recall one. But you see it on a near nightly basis in today's NBA.

The NBA has let its league get out of hand by pacifying their overpriced crybaby players—but they still want to be perceived as in control by doling out fines or suspensions.

If commissioner David Stern wants to see what's wrong with the league, all he needs to do is watch the tapes from the Dallas-Denver series to see what I'm getting at.

All that "exciting" series had was a bunch of thugs beating each other up and calling it basketball. How many technicals and flagrant fouls need to be called before the league realizes the players are out of hand? Game Four of the series had seven technical fouls and two flagrant fouls. Game Five had three technicals, and Game Two had a pair. See the point?

Then Monday night against the Lakers, Denver's Dahntay Jones sticks his leg out and trips Bryant, but no call. Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson called it "unsportsmanlike" basketball. Haven't you been paying attention, Phil? The entire league is filled with unsportsmanlike basketball players.

It's time the league took control of the game once again, and not through intimidation by fines, suspensions, or technical fouls. Stern needs to tell his officials to call the fouls—all of them—until the game is cleaned up.

If enough players foul out, and don't get ejected by a hot-headed, overzealous official, then we'll see the beauty of the game return, instead of the debauchery we currently have.