Ahh this is sad to see. I get some of your points, but I'm not sure basketball is it.
Before last year, basketball's parity problem was better, but they just came out of the GSW era. Before that, it was whatever team LeBron was on. Wouldn't doubt if this Celtics team wins something like 2 of the next 3 or 3 out of 5.
My major problem with basketball, aside from the lack of parity, is game flow. There are so many commercials and the last 2-3 minutes of close games are awful to watch with the incessant amount of timeouts called. It kills the flow and diminishes the amount of drama.
The player movement thing does suck but let's hope the rising cap alleviates some of that. You bring up the Knicks, but they are the perfect example of not good enough to win. Brunson is not on the level of Giannis, Tatum, and (a healthy) Embiid. Sure they have depth, but can you see them beating Boston or even Denver without massive injuries? At least in hockey, as long the teams are reasonably matched up, the result is not as predetermined.
You bring up some salient points.
You have to keep in mind, also, that there's an exhaustion element to it. I've been watching hockey for 30+ years. I'm still very much on here and very much at the arena when I can be, and I like talking about it. It's just, when it starts going bad, it's like "oh this again?" I don't have the energy to react to the bullshit anymore with anything besides laughing at it.
I can be positive about basketball. I'm still too dumb to know better.
I had a conversation with a buddy of mine before game 6 of the ECF. He's super into basketball and we go to games and such, but he casually follows the Rangers because he knows it's my thing. And he's trying to get me going before game 6. "C'mon man, you gotta have faith, win one game, game 7 at home, etc. etc. etc." And I'm just like "listen, this isn't a matter of I
think the Rangers are going to lose tonight, I
know the Rangers are going to lose tonight." And I was right. I'm always right. I smelled the blood in the water. I have a dangerous amount of experience in this sport. I can far too often give myself spoilers.
I should also mention that, while I like the Knicks, my #1 team is the Liberty. The WNBA slaps. The quarters are 10 minutes instead of 12. It makes a world of difference. You get a compact, relatively low-scoring, two-hour experience where every momentum swing has a lot of gravity because you can't afford to just go down 20 like you can in the NBA. The W also has one of my favorite rules -- the reset timeout. It's a mini "timeout" where you get to advance the ball and...do nothing else. You just advance the ball. The whole thing is like ten seconds. A lot of people have brought up that point about the lack of flow, and it's a great solution. I would like to see the NBA start using it.
It also doesn't hurt that unlike at MSG, I can afford to consistently go to Liberty games and in pretty good seats too.
