My Favorite Series

I tried. I really did. But I just couldn’t do it: I couldn’t get into the NBA playoffs.

Not even with the retro appeal of this year’s Finals and one of my favorite athletes getting some well-deserved time in the sun. And not even with my adopted city’s team - with a former Hog as one of its star players - nearly pulling off an all-time upset of the eventual world champion.

I turned away from the NBA in the early part of the decade, when offense dried up and final scores seemed to regularly be something like 75 to 68. And despite the obvious rejuvenation of the game, I haven’t been able to re-engage. I don’t really know why: I’ll leave that up to our staff psychologist.

Whatever the cause, my current apathy stands in stark contrast to my attitude in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, I was an NBA fanatic. And I was never more absorbed by pro basketball than I was during the epic, seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal showdown between the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks in 1994.

This one had it all: two teams that despised each other, fourth-quarter comebacks, a good old-fashioned brawl, last-second heroics, a questionable game-deciding call and the in-game mental meltdown of a star player. Even before all of that happened, the series’ storylines were wildly compelling.

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