I asked this in the comments section of another blog: Does the NBA really have anything the least bit effective in place to induce a little parity? I know that David Stern and ABC and all the various advertisers like Vitamin Water and Nike are completely thrilled that the Lakers are in the finals AGAIN, and it’s apparently because it will be so good for the ratings.

But I can’t fathom WHY that’s going to be good for ratings. To me, I see that FIFTY PERCENT of the league’s championships are owned by just TWO TEAMS, Lakers & Celtics. Add the Bulls, Spurs, and Pistons to the list, and just those FIVE franchises account for something like EIGHTY PERCENT of the titles.

Is it really, truly good for the ratings to have the same few teams going to the finals over and over and over? Who are all these people out there saying “Oh boy, the Lakers are going AGAIN! If they hadn’t made it, I wouldn’t have watched!”?

I, for one, will not be watching a single second of the finals this year. I didn’t watch one second last year, either. It feels to me like something is fundamentally wrong with the NBA. I don’t feel like the team I’ve been rooting for, for decades, has an honest shot at ever making the finals. It must be rigged. The Nuggets seem to be one of the many franchises who exist for the same reason as the Washington Generals. The Lakers just need somebody to beat on their way to the finals, so hey, let’s put a team in Denver.

Again, I just can’t understand why the prevailing opinion wouldn’t be “What, the Lakers again? Yawn.”

It’s two simultaneous sources of disappointment tonight — one, that the Nuggets didn’t make it, and two, that it’s because they lost to the Lakers. Part of me wants to feel hopeful that maybe the Nuggets can build on this and finally make it next year or the year after, and part of me wants to just stop following professional basketball altogether.