Honestly, I don’t give a fuck who you’re rooting for in the NBA Finals. It would be stupid if everyone rooted for the same team, that’s called the Olympics. In basketball, and in the NBA, we need things to be kind of a shitshow. It’s the greatest reality show around–nothing compares to the NBA.
This is exclusively in response to an article by The Athletic which I can only read the first 3 paragraphs because it is behind a paywall and I need that money to fuel my iced coffee addiction.
The tweet and the small preview were enough.
First of all cease and desist with the brick by brick line, but I thought I’d take a stab at answering this gentleman’s question. Keep in mind he could have had much more sound reasoning after the 3 paragraphs but no one will ever know.
How can you NOT root for Miami if you’re the NBA? Now who specifically in the NBA are we talking about?
Let’s start at the top–there is no chance Adam Silver isn’t rooting for the Lakers. That’s half of NBA twitter’s entire argument that this is rigged for the Lakers to win, where do you think they get it from? Even without taking into account that they are a historic franchise and debatably the greatest brand in professional sports, the Lakers winning is good for basketball.
As the flashiest team in the richest market in the country with the biggest superstar ever, the Lakers winning the NBA title would not make a lot of fans happy, but it sure would make a lot of money. Could you imagine the despair Adam Silver would have suffered if we got a Heat Nuggets finals matchup. I’d argue that the NBA probably needs the Lakers to win more than the Lakers need to win. They’ve already established they…aren’t the Clippers.
Let’s also not act like Miami is some Cleveland Browns type. They won the title 7 years ago with the same guy that’s on the court for the Lakers, in his actual prime.
More from the article (preview):
Draft well, coach well, manage your cap wisely and you too can be lifting trophies at the end of the season! It’s that easy guys!! Why can’t everyone just figure it out.
Miami is a destination, both geographically and professionally. The Heat are a desirable place to play because they got a superstar to play there and because he won championships as one of the first super teams in history. The Heat basically invented the super team. They wouldn’t have the chance to draft well, coach well, and manage their cap wisely if they didn’t.
That’s just kind of how it works in the NBA. The Kings are never going to win the championship…would anyone besides the players care if the Nets ever did? Are there real Nets fans? I think there are just KD and Kyrie fans. Those franchises aren’t selling their fans hope and if they are trying to they are doing an awful job.
Let’s be honest, we love to hate watch anything. Most actual people that aren’t Lakers fans are rooting for the Heat because if their team can’t win, they certainly don’t want obnoxious Lakers fan bragging about how Lebron and AD basically fell on our lap and won a championship in their first year together. There are people out there now who have countless tweets saved in their drafts ready to go about how this championship doesn’t count or *the Clippers would have beat the Lakers*. Even as a Lakers fan I get it, hate watching the Lakers is fun.
Maybe owners of other teams should be rooting against the Lakers, just so they can have a chance at Lebron in year 20. But I feel like being a team owner is one of those set it and forget it investments. Do you ever lose money being the owner of a team (in normal conditions)? Like obviously the owners want to build winning teams and not get roasted online every night and most are just too dumb to be able to, but they are filthy rich so does it really matter? Unfortunately you can draft well, coach well and manage the salary cap and you will still need a handsomely paid super star on your team. This isn’t the Patriots.
Plus, the NBA is better when teams like the Lakers and Celtics are good. Everyone benefits, a rising tide raises all ships. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking that the Knicks are a dumpster fire. The NBA needs it’s premiere franchise to win, and that’s why they should be rooting for the Lakers. And if that’s not reason enough, do it for me…and Halsey.