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Sure there’s the IPL, the EPL and numerous other soccer leagues around the world you watch every weekend with your friends. There’s also Formula One, WWE and MMA. But nothing is as thrilling as the NBA!
Here are seven seasons why you should start watching basketball soon:
It’s fast-paced
Remember when you called your friends over at your house, and you were excited that the two highest scoring teams were playing each other and you expected a lot of goals? What happened was a 0-0 draw; a real disappointment. That's the thing with soccer – you never know when you're going to get the goals. It took the Germans overtime to beat Algeria, and we all know how much time they needed to destroy Brazil.
The NBA is a different beast. You get a basket at nearly every possession; the 24-second short clock to make the basket just makes it awesome. You will never get bored while watching it. In football it's either the goal or the assist, but in basketball it's the dunk, the alley-oop, the chase-down or in your face block, the steal to the fast break dunk. It's amazing!
The trades!
Trades! It's my favourite thing about NBA. Remember when your favorite soccer league team just lost its star player to a big money team (hello, Man City and Real Madrid!) for a bunch of money your team never really seems to spend (hello Arsenal)? That doesn't happen in the NBA. It has trades – some wild ones, and the teams that generally seem to lose the deal by giving up their star players for future assets and expiring contracts turn out to be huge winners after some time.
The Lakers traded for Pau Gasol from the Grizzlies for the right of his younger brother Marc who wasn't even in the NBA at that time, which caused a huge uproar in the league. The team got two titles but are in a huge disarray now with Pau leaving to Chicago, whereas Memphis, the 2013 Western Conference Finalists are a still a pretty solid team with Marc leading the franchise at a very reasonable contract.
The format
The NBA consists of 30 teams (15 are in the Western Conference and 15 are in the Eastern Conference). Every team plays a 82-game regular season. The top eight teams of the respective conferences then face each other in 7-game series until one winner is left, then the winners of the respective conferences face each other for the Ring. Basically, the NBA is the English Premier League fused into a 7-game series FA Cup tournament, and you don't have to count how many cups or leagues your team has won – it’s just the rings that matter. Neat, cohesive, compact, and a whole lot more fun!
The salary cap
The rich don't get richer in the NBA. Every team has a salary cap and if they go past it they have to shell out ‘luxury tax’, which is like a dollar for a dollar. That's what makes the NBA competitive – at some point or the other you are bound to overpay some star, make a bad deal or luck out in luring a star (just ask Miami or the Lakers) and you lose it unless of course you’re the Spurs – who are just money-balling the NBA right now.
The cap makes the NBA more competitive than any soccer league as it just doesn’t let a wealthy owner overpay for a star. Every now and then if the team spends rightly (circa 2010 Miami or 2013 Hosuton) it can get the contender status easily, but if it keeps making bad deals, it is a lock to stink for a decent amount of time (Kings, Bucks).
The Lottery and the Draft
The Lottery is another thing the NBA wins at. Sure, some teams tank (losing at will so they better their chance of getting a higher pick) at the end of season, but still the NBA Draft can change the worst team into a title contender real soon. See for example Oklahoma City – they drafted Durant, Westrbook, Harden and Ibaka in consecutive years to become real contenders for years until Sam Presti somehow made one of the most horrible deals in NBA history to trade Harden to the Rockets for not even pennies on the dollar.
Unlike soccer, where the last team is relegated (still wondering when Blackburn gets back to the EPL), the NBA gives the team a chance to draft a future franchise player through the draft and rebuild again. The Spurs got Tim Duncan with the help of lottery luck (they had the second worst record and got the first pick) and they have been perennial contenders since, because they win at finding gems late in the Draft (#28 Tony Parker, #57 Manu Ginobili, #15 Kawhi Leonard and many more).
Catching the games live is not a problem
You don’t have to be up all night, but just wake up a little early (6 am – 11 am) to watch the NBA, Sony Six telecasts two games pretty much everyday since the season starts from October up to the NBA Finals in June, and what’s better than waking up to a thrilling game of basketball. It’s going to make your day better.
Indians are coming
Just a few days ago, the Indian national basketball team defeated China (12th in the world rankings) in the FIBA Asia Cup, which was probably the greatest victory in the history of Indian basketball.
News has also emerged that Sim Bhullar, the 7ft 5 inch beast, has agreed to sign with the Sacramento Kings’ (owned by Indian origin Vivek Ranadive) summer league team. It’s a pretty long shot that he makes the roster but still it’s a great step for Indian players. The possibility of having an Indian player in the NBA before the EPL is just amazing.
What’s more, the FIBA Basketball World Cup is going to be held this summer and then continuted like the FIFA World Cup, so if India’s national team keeps up the good work, you never know, the Basketball World Cup could come to the country!
