The Playoffs That Never End

There are things in this world that we need more of and things we need less of. We need more Desmond/Penny moments on “Lost”, striker options for the US Men’s National Soccer Team, episodes of “Doctor Who” with Martha Jones, and quality middle relief in baseball. We need less of TMZ, athletes with “off the field issues”, reality TV, and the NBA Playoffs.

With the NBA Finals descending upon us, I have but one thought. Thank God. This feels less like a playoff and more like an endurance test. Granted, I don’t watch the NBA, so I’m not sure who it’s been tougher on. On one side, you have the fans, who have to stay up late watching these games and then wait days on end for the next game. On the other side, you have the non-NBA sports fans, who have to wade through websites and TV shows that cover the playoffs like it was the Second Coming before finding out the score of Red Sox/A’s game.

Now, I realize that every sport needs a playoff (except college football for some insane reason), but can’t we shorten this up. It feels like it’s been going on since Christmas. At this point, they’ve exhausted just about every story angle. I feel that tomorrow I’m going to turn on ESPN and see a story about the Celtics ball-boy or some Laker Girl who got hooked on smack but finally found God. How about a best of 5 series in the first round, tighten up the days off, and get rid of the horrid 2-2-1-1-1 format? This is something we can all agree on, right?

Am I rehashing arguments that non-baseball fans have about the MLB Playoffs and non-football fans have about the NFL playoffs? Probably, but even NBA fans have to grate a little about the length of the playoffs. In a country of “I want everything 5 minutes ago”, how can these keep anyone’s attention? I think you either need to be a passionate fan, stoned, or lost the remote in order to sit through the weeks and months on end that the NBA Playoffs have lasted. For everyone’s sake, I hope it’s the first option.