I think this is the first time that I have no interest in the Finals

The Finals are dead to me..

 

too deep

 

I’m watching to support Lebron, who is going to be our best player next season.

 

gud luk wit dat

 

I too have no interest in the finals, but remain very interested in discussing it. On the internet.

 

White Mamba confirmed on Nick Wright/CC this morning.

 

New loyal customers, yes. But is that what's happening here? Or are they just casual ones? Because that type can be very flaky. The NBA got a huge boost from Jordan and the Bulls in the 90's at the peak of David Stern's reign. But what happened when that team lost Jordan to his first retirement and then lost everyone in Jerry Krause's 1998 firesale? The league went through a couple dry spells as those casual fans tuned out when the Rockets won their 2 straight titles and then the Spurs won one(in a lockout shortened season, no less).

It's a double-edged sword when you promote and build your sport around dynasties. It can turn off fanbases of other teams who seemingly have no shot at winning and once the dynasties end due to injuries, age, or free agent defections, a lot of those casual fans will bail for some other form of entertainment. And what's even worse is that this era of the NBA is being dominated by only two teams. At least during the Bulls and Lakers three-peats, they faced 8 different opponents in the 9 combined years they were in the Finals. And before anyone brings up the Lakers and Celtics in the 80's, keep in mind that those two teams were dominating during a time when there were 7 fewer franchises in the NBA than there are today.

 

anyone have the Houston viewership stats for games 1 and 2?

 

Genuinely unaware that Game 2 was today until my friend texted me did I see the score.

It's honestly like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, being able to find the farcical side to the NBA's blatant hatchet jobs.

 

put it on last night for background noise but turned it down and didn’t really watch it while doing other things. Hoping for two more blowouts to get this season over with

 

Its LeBron vs GSW. This is boring as hell

 

Check scores on my phone the day after, but otherwise, fuuuuk da finals!!

 

I haven’t watched a single second.
Have deleted all podcast episodes covering it.
Not participated in any forum threads about it (excluding this one).

 

Don't worry; they will be over soon.

 

I admit that I've watched some of these two games. But it becomes difficult, almost impossible, when (a) the Cavs don't get obvious calls (I don't love them, but I can feel their pain) and (b) the punk Warriors start getting cocky. As if they skated through the playoffs to get to where they are.

At a store in Memorial City Mall I was looking for a Rockets cap; the salesgirl mentioned how she's a Warriors fan. I had to bite my tongue; a geyser of blood painted the wall, but I kept my peace. "Oh, you mean, you're the casual NBA fan who tags along when there's a dynasty team that always wins? I mean, who wouldn't love a team comprised of 1/3 of the WC All Star players."

 

The media as a collective hates the Rockets, all the praise this year was reluctantly done because the Rockets forced their hand.

And we were the best team when healthy, the playoffs showed that

 

As much as I don't like to tie our losses to the refs, games 6 and 7 were such obvious hatchet jobs, it just leaves me bitter about the NBA in general. Game 7 in particular was despicable. All the Rockets' missed threes will be recounted in the media until the end of time. What won't be mentioned is that the Rockets stopped trying to hit threes for a while and tried focusing on driving instead, where they having success. And the refs clearly shut that down with purposeful no-calls and other insane calls. Had to go back to the failing threes game when it was clear that driving was being prevented...by the officiating.

Also, the Warriors are just the worst pricks of the NBA. Caught my eye years ago in Harden's first season with us when they committed all sorts of purposeful fouls to prevent the Rockets from getting one more three in the game where we tied the record for threes in a game. It was the equivalent of the kid that tosses the board game off the table when it becomes clear he's going to lose. And their overall prickishness seems to only have gotten worse since then. They're not the bad boys of the NBA constantly getting it done their way as the media narrative happily portrays it. They're coddled douches, and it was nauseating enough to have to watch them on screen playing the Rockets for seven games. No way in hell I'm going to watch anything else with them.

 

lol they even didnt give us credit for losing to 3-4 to an allstar team having double digit leads in closout games at halftime while cp3 being injured and getting jobbed by the refs

 

at least you are honest about it...
ps i am not watching the finals 3-4 years in a row now

 

I watched game 2, because the Astros are doing me no favors.

If you think about it, these Finals could decide the fate of some teams forever, including the Rockets.