Every commissioner yearns for their sport to be discussed every day of the week; to hog the headlines. The dream is for there to be no dry periods. At all points in time there should be a downpour of activity providing the nutrients for the seeds of hope and fandom to bloom. The widely held belief is that the National Football League holds the heavyweight championship of “There’s Always Something Going On”. Yet, that’s an utter fallacy. The NBA is where it’s at.
I love the NFL as much as the next guy, but there are some reeeeally slow parts of the calendar. After the Super Bowl we have to wait a whole month until Free Agency. Here is where discussions about players’ legacies and “eliteness” rear their ugly head. Finally, after having to listen to Skip Bayless yell about who would be a better father to his children, Eli Manning or Joe Flacco (the answer is clearly Flacco for what it’s worth, Manning would let Bayless’ kids stay up all night eating sugary cereals and playing freeze tag), Free Agency washes over us like a cool ocean breeze. Except this ocean breeze pretty much never lives up to the hype.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the best basketball player in the world — yes, the guy who is the best at putting that round orange bouncy thing into that really tall basket — switched teams during the NBA’s version of Free Agency. NBA Free Agency is like a cocaine fueled adrenaline rush while driving 130 miles an hour down the autobahn in a drop-top Ferrari.
During the early portion of July, the entire landscape of the NBA quakes like the tectonic plates lying dormant beneath its crust is shifting. It’s fascinating. It’s exciting. And it’s star studded. This got me thinking, when was the last time the best player in the NFL switched teams? Crap, when was the last time he even hit Free Agency? Yeah, Peyton Manning left the Colts, but that was after a freaking neck surgery and he was 35 years old. If LeBron was 35 years old and had both of his kneecaps broken in a street fight with Delonte West, which would be a fair comparison. The NFL has no comparison for this. It would be like if Aaron Rodgers became way more dominant and then unexpectedly bolted for the Bears. Then we could talk.
But it’s not just the quality of the NBA offseason (superior free agency, way more active trade market, more interesting salary cap juggling acts, etc.), it’s also the quantity. Simply put, the NBA has no chill. Like, none whatsoever. Think about it, the NBA season goes from late October until late June. That’s 8 months. The NFL goes from September till February. That’s 6 months. How does the NFL make up for those two lost months? By making you wait a whole month for Free Agency. Then making you wait, like, two more months until the draft. That’s why people freak out over Teddy Bridgewater’s pro day. BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO TALK ABOUT. And what’s happening right now? Nothing at all, which is why the NFL Network spends God knows how long on a top 100 players list. There’s just no football to discuss.
On the other hand, the NBA Finals end, the draft happens the week after that and Free Agency happens the week after that. The draft happened three weeks ago and I barely had enough time to digest it, and then LeBron went to Cleveland and then Bosh stayed in Miami and then Parsons was a Maverick and oh my God where did Lance Stephenson just sign? The NBA is a wild bender that has no end in sight and has you waking up the next morning, checking your phone, and asking “what happened last night?!?”
Oh, and the Las Vegas Summer League is going on right now, in case you like watching awesome young players doing awesome things.
The NBA has more happening more frequently than the NFL, or any other sport for that matter. Consequently, the league is getting a more dedicated fan base and its popularity is soaring. Thus, players are making their already rich owners money hands-over-fist. The best players, like LeBron, are starting to realize that there is no proper compensation for their work, and they are starting to get antsy. The NBA calendar, what makes the league so great, may also destroy it. For the very reason that we love the NBA so much, may cause another lockout. Why can’t we just have our cake and eat it too?
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