I Hate The Beginning Of The NBA Season

Raphael Haynes
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[author image=”https://www.the3pointconversion.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/pic-copy.jpg” ]Raphael Haynes, Atlanta, GA @mrcontroversy21[/author]

 

 

 

It’s an exciting time if you’re a NBA fan. We get to see new faces in new places, rookies debut and to see if the hype of the so-called best teams are for real. This is the time where we see players fresh with no burn-out playing hard. This is why we are pumped about start of the season, to have questions answered.

Yet still this is why I hate the beginning of the NBA season. Nothing gets affirmed and it’s almost just as vague as the preseason. Don’t get my wrong, I love the NBA and yes I enjoy watching basketball more than the biggest NBA fan but let me explain. This is the part of the season where we will see teams that are not that good beat better teams and even look spectacular doing it. Not that I don’t want to see upsets but what’s the significance of it, so we can complain or jump on the team that should have annihilated them?

For example, opening night showcased the Cleveland Cavaliers hosting the New York Knicks. The Knicks got blown out 117-88 and Charles Barkley mentioned that the Knicks won’t make the playoffs off of one game. Really?! What did that loss prove for both teams, the Cavaliers are the team to beat (like we didn’t know that) or that it won’t work in New York (sarcasm here)? Let’s attack the San Antonio Spurs game against the Golden State Warriors. Most say the Warriors got embarrassed by the Spurs in which they did. All this tells us is the Warriors need time to gel. The problem is, I don’t want to see a team gel, it’s not attractive basketball. It takes me back to the beginning of the 2010 season when the Miami Heat were trying to get familiar with each other after uniting Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. We saw errand passes, indeciciveness and bad defense. All for what, basically only to see them explode the second half of the season. It has no relevance of the second half from a fan’s point of view. We literally forget what happens in November.

The misconception about the the first few weeks in the NBA is how well the rookies will be. Only the great players like Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Jason Kidd come out in the first few weeks and show their potential greatness from the start. Most rookies now days take a month or two to get their rhythm and the pace of the game down pat. For instance, Devin Booker started out slow last year but didn’t start turning heads until later on in the season. Thus, the young guys use this time to figure it out and what it is to be a pro which can be tumultuous at times.

What drives me crazy the most is the overreactions by fans. After the first week, we will hear the nay-sayers pounce on teams that we expected to make an improvement or the playoffs for starting out slow. Criticism will be at a all-time high on how this team made a mistake of trading for or signing a certain player. With the 82 game season, coaches can afford to mix up and change lineups. There will be that loss or losses which will seem ridiculous for a top tier team to have, make us wonder what’s wrong. The crazy part is certain fans will jump on their teams and write up every reason why this team isn’t good. Yes the fans get to be fans but judging the and predicting the season after 12 games sounds absurd.

I might sound like the NBA grouch but my point is the beginning of the season can still have us scratching our heads and leaving us without answers proving nothing but the NBA season doesn’t really get into full effect until around late December. I will always love this game and cherish every moment of it but there will always be that time where the game just doesn’t seem that attractive.

Raphael Haynes

Atlanta, GA

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