College Basketball Excitement: Why It's More Entertaining Than the NBA
Sitting through an entire NBA game is painful.
As a basketball player and fan, watching LeBron James take four steps and dunk the ball, or Kobe Bryant hold the ball for 20 seconds then throw up a fadeaway jumper, hurts my eyes.
Here are some reasons why college ball is better than the NBA.
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1) Competition
Look at the Big East, for example. You will almost never see a game that isn't competitive. In the NBA, we now see "super-teams," which are making the league less competitive and less appealing for fans. In college, we see upsets nobody would think to predict. Any team can beat another team on any given day of the season.
2) Playoff Play
Is it just me or are the NBA playoffs never-ending? They don't end until late June! College has a great playoff system with the March tournament. March Madness is one of the most exciting times of the year for sports fans, next to the Super Bowl. Crazy upsets and buzzer-beaters fill the air, while the NBA continues its long, dreadful season.
3) Excitement and Unpredictable Endings
Look at the last three NBA champions—the Lakers won twice in a row and the Celtics in 2008. Anybody could have predicted those victories. Unpredictability is when a small team like Northern Iowa beats the No. 1 team in the country—in the second round of the tournament.
When a mid-major school like Butler can get to the finals, or a team like George Mason can make the Final Four, it just proves anything can happen in college basketball. Although Duke was a No. 1 seed last year, many people thought they had no chance to win. Only one person out of 30 picked the Blue Devils to win in my bracket.
In order for the NBA to become more exciting again—like in the Michael Jordan days—the league has to do a couple of things. First of all, a franchise tag (like in the NFL) would help. It would prevent teams like Cleveland losing their star players for nothing. Also, they need to make the season shorter. Eighty-two games, plus four best-of-seven game series', are way too many.
