Miami Heat: Why They Have Some NBA Fans Hoping the Season Is Canceled

You can smell it...

The doom, the gloom, the resentment and the anguish over the impending loss of a season. Everyone is feeling it. Everyone is scared stiff at the prospect of no basketball until next year.

Wait, what? Not everyone wants to see the lockout end? Oh, you must be referring to those people who've been turned off to the NBA by the labor dispute. The ones going "go ahead, scrap the season," and who've had it with rich players and wealthy owners. They don't count as fans any more.

Wait, not them? Then who? What kind of so-called NBA fan would want to lose a whole season of sweet b-ball action? What kind of bizarro logic is that?

I'll tell you what kind. But first, I must point out a few things.

First off, these people are purists; they want to see the spirit of competition play out to the fullest, and they want the best team to win on some semblance of a level playing field. Without real competition, there is no suspense, no drama and no excitement...they might as well be watching RAW.

Secondly, they are not at all pleased with the direction in which the league is headed.

Third and most importantly, these people are consequently scared to death of the Miami Heat, which drives their entire viewpoint on the labor stoppage.

Really, this is a team that everyone—aside from the bandwagon and ticket-holding Miami demographics—is scared to death of. We all know how close they came to winning an NBA title last spring, and most of us are not deluded enough to count on their precipitous last-minute collapse recurring,

So with a Miami championship such an apparently inescapable certainty, there are those who believe that the Heat are harbingers of a dark future in the NBA, where two or three superteams snack on the other 20-aught clubs for 82 games before poaching their superstars.

They feel that when the league enters this paradigm, there will be no more genuine excitement in the NBA... that this has, in fact, begun. They will tell you that the increased viewership from last year is a sign, not of excited fans, but of the same morbid curiosity that once sold out carnival freakshows.  

They feel that Miami is the enemy of the game they hold so dear, that if/when they win the Finals, the mercenary superteam model will be validated (as will Miami's insufferable immodesty) and will essentially become the gospel of NBA success.

Egos over parity; their worst nightmare. Thanks, Bron Bron.

Then, they say, we can all kiss basketball as we know it goodbye. Heck, the game barely made it out alive during the last postseason.

I break here to address Heat fans who contend that there have been superteams that won it all in the past, that they couldn't have done it otherwise, and nobody ever ragged on them this badly.

The purists would reply that this is nothing but an easy reach made possible by poor hindsight. Many more teams were stacked with big names over the years, but we remember the ones that won it all, and we paint them as unique in this regard.

This illusion can then be exploited to argue that stacking is the only way, and thus acceptable in all its forms and degrees.

It's such a conveniently malleable concept that the Heat could trot out last year's East All-Star roster, and their fans would still echo their current argument without batting an eyelash.

But I've digressed enough...

Now,  with seemingly nothing left to stand in the way of this beast, there are those who feel like they're watching time inexorably tick away on the "Where Amazing Happens" era of basketball. Gradually taking its place, the "Gimme, I'm A Superstar" era.

Convinced that the aforementioned doomsday clock can't be stopped, they thank their lucky stars for anything, no matter how drastic, that can at least slow it down. Even if means the only way to keep Miami from winning the Finals is to have no Finals at all.

Hopefully, they feel, a canceled season will provide enough time and pressure on the players to bring some serious changes to the next collective bargaining agreement, which might prohibit "The Scheme Team" from becoming the norm.

Plus, the last thing they want is a rushed resolution predicated on cutting losses rather than the well-being of the game. Obviously, the owners are looking out for themselves first and foremost; it just so happens that for once their interests run parallel to those of basketball in general.

In the meantime, no divisional battles, no emerging contenders, no storylines at all... just updates on the stalemate. But it's not all bad; at least they'll be spared the sight of a Heat title for one more year.

So blow it up, these people say. They'll survive, and they'll be right there the second play resumes, because dammit, they love the game...

So much in fact, that we'd gladly be deprived of it for a year in order to see it healthy again.

Did I say we? I meant... ah, never mind.