OT-NHL Playoffs vs. NBA Playoffs
This is a good discussion to kill time on a Wednesday. Which is better/do you prefer? NHL or NBA Playoffs. I personally prefer the NHL playoffs and it is not close. The games are more entertaining, there is more real drama (NBA has fake drama), and the grind it takes to win shows just who is the best. But that is just my opinion, what is yours?
Go Wings!
I was speaking more towards hockey in general, and specifically about your comment that it's North American-centric.
I think there have been milestones that show hockey on the rise. The NBA pricing its target demographic out of ticket sales has put hockey into the three spot in attendance, and last summer's USA/Canada game was huge. Hockey has also "come back" to the number three market in the country and I'm assuming a Rangers/Islanders championship one of these years might pay huge dividends in the NY area.
While NASCAR is struggling (thankfully.) NBA if memory serves are stagnant recently, but WAY down since its '98 hey day.
The NHL's ratings are not good by any stretch of the imagination. They're up relative to the time immediately after they cancelled an entire season and went on an obscure network.
The NBA's ratings are indeed much lower than they were in Jordan's heyday, but still routinely about triple what the NHL draws.
I've never paid much attention to NASCAR, although I'm pretty sure it outdraws the NHL by a significant amount.
American Idol's ratings are down, but that last episode of The Cape was way up compared to the other airings. The NHL was fighting to get better ratings than the WNBA not that long ago.
Geocentric much? Claiming a sport cannot be the greatest in the world simply because of poor ratings in the U.S. is so closed-minded. I suppose you think Jersey Shore is the greatest TV show in the world.
It's a fair question. You don't need to be so defensive. You - an American, I presume - claim that it is the greatest sport in the world. It has reached you. Why hasn't it reached more of your fellow Americans?
We're not talking about a sport like soccer that was late to arrive here. Nor are we talking about a sport that is dominant overseas. Hockey's roots are in North America. The best hockey league in the world is right here. But even here in part of its home turf, it attracts tiny audiences. Even if parts of the U.S. that have had NHL franchises for decades, games not involving the local team can't attract any interest. Why isn't that happening? Can the league do anything to draw in the casual/indifferent fan?
Around the world than hockey too (not even mentioning soccer), if it's "the Greatest sport in the world"?
One reason, it is relatively cheap to dig a hole in the ground and cement a tall galvanized pole with a basketball hoop/backboard attached to it. It is much more expensive to build a rink.
But the fact that it's on accessible to a few, and popular in basically North America and Eastern Europe kind of hamper it from being the "World's Greatest Sport"? I may love me some American Football, but I'm not thinking the WORLD is embracing it anytime soon.
I think one of the main theories is that not many people play the sport when they're young. In the frozen north and canada you can play it in the winter with just sticks and skates on a frozen lake, but for a large part of the US the only way to play is to join a league and buy pads, which makes it a distictly more upper-middle class sport.
Growing up around hockey in Chicagoland, I had a pretty warped view on wealth in America up until around high school. The amount of money it takes to play hockey is ridiculous; some midget teams are a 6k-7k a year investment in Illinois, and that's not the AAA level.
Completely agree. I grew up in Muskegon playing on Mona Lake when it froze over in the winter. Then I played street hockey in the summer with my friends and in a roller hockey league we had in the area. My parents could also afford hockey equipment and ice time, so I played ice hockey in leagues in the area too. Not many kids in this country have the same opportunity. It is much cheaper and easier to put up a hoop in your driveway where you can play year round.
You haven't watched an NBA game since the early 80's, have you?
April 14th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
You've obviously never watched a good NBA team play. I'd like to introduce you to the Chicago Bulls. I think we've had fewer than 10 games w both teams over 100 points.
The NBA playoffs last longer than an entire season of major league baseball.
April 14th, 2011 at 12:31 AM ^
The NHL playoffs are about 3 days shorter. Great reason to diss NBA.
and it is not even close...an up and down playoff hockey game beats anything the NBA can throw out there...
I stopped caring when the Bad Boys broke up.
Personally, I prefer to watch basketball to hockey. But I will agree that the NHL playoffs are better-suited to having four best-of-seven series than the NBA playoffs are. In basketball, the better team generally wins in a playoff series, so it can be predictable, especially the early rounds. Still, the later rounds are pretty exciting.
The randomness of hockey gives every NHL team hope in the playoffs, which is cool. But I find that randomness annoying sometimes. A crappy team can win a series just by having its goalie play out of his mind.
a dunk is a dunk. scoring happens wayyy to often in basketball. Every once in a while there is a really cool dunk or something but its like a really good song on the radio getting played over and over, it gets old.
NHL over NBA for sure. No question.
I think opinions here are colored greatly by the play of the Pistons and Red Wings. The pathetic play of the Pistons greatly affects the opinion of those from Michigan. (I like the ESPN polls that show answers by the State. It'd be interested to see how this poll is colored by location, and corresponding play of NHL/NBA team in that location.)
However, my opinion is shaped by being in Chicago, where the NBA team does seem to care, try hard, and play hard, throughout the season. Exhibit a: the 7 game series vs. Boston two years ago was very entertaining.
Rose is humble and plays hard. Noah, while ugly as all get out, and frustrating to other teams (like Rodman was,) plays very hard, with great enthusiasm, and is very bright. I guess if I was in many other cities, I might feel differently about the playoffs.
Toews plays hard and is as humble as they come as well.
As a sports fan, I'd naturally find the NBA playoffs more interesting because you're more likely to get the best team as the champion. However, the games are fixed so I haven't watched a single NBA game since that Kings-Lakers game 6 a few years ago.
NHL seems to have both more parity and a higher chance for a hot goalie to greatly alter the course of the playoffs. So looking at it similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, I can see the appeal of just wanting to see upsets/chaos.
So I'd probably say NHL playoffs, but I think NBA would have more potential to be better due to the way the game works. Assuming both teams were on equal footing from the refs, it'd be much harder for a hot team to make a run through 4 7-game series and more likely for the best teams to make the finals.
Yet I'm stuck watching generic dunk after dunk on ESPN.
You couldn't pay me to watch NBA games. Completely predictable and boring. NHL by far.
Well, the Devils missed the playoffs for the first time since 1996 (Damn you John MacLean!), so I might be inclined to say NBA.
But, it is always fun to see the Rangers and the Flyers blow it somehow.
NHL playoffs are probably a better product for all of the reasons stated, but I'm a classic 'the-puck-is-too-small-to-keep-me-interested' guy. I just like basketball way more than hockey.
But have you tried catching a whole hockey game in HD? Not BTN HD, but like, Versus or NBC HD?
I truly think that hockey has benefitted from HD more than any other sport. Sure Football, baseball and hoops look so much crisper, but hockey in HD has really improved the viewing experience in being able to, ya know, follow the puck! I have near perfect eyesight and have played goalie since I was 7, so it was never a problem for me. But I often had to tell people when shots were tipped in, etc. because it was such a problem.
I actually grew up in Detroit watching hockey and when I watched regularly, I don't remember ever having a problem seeing the puck, but when I moved to Florida, I stopped watching hockey. I don't mind hockey, but even in HD it's too much work to follow the puck for me. I like basketball more anyway, although I'll take college basketball over the NBA any day of the week. Just my preference. Not everyone, but a lot of people on here are really being dicks about this.
and not trying to be dick-ish with that comment on HD.
And I like both, and like I mentioned above, I dont have to choose! To each his own!
...Is this even a debate?
Watching NBA games is like watching paint dry on most nights. For me, there is nothing more exciting than NHL playoff games
NBA games are dull as anything until the last minute or so. NHL games can change in a heartbeat and any one play throughout the game can be the game winner. Faster, more physical and just more exciting.
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<br>Goes for the regular season too.
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I grew up a huge basketball fan and played constantly, and I still play in leagues as an adult. On the other hand, I've never played organized hockey and didn't care the least bit about the NHL as a kid.
Yet, the two leagues' playoffs interest me about the same amount as one another. The NBA is a pile of garbage.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. You probably haven't watched an NBA game since Nam or so
There has been NBA hating on this board since its started. Not really surprsing. I hate to break it to you NHL fans but no one watches your sport(in the USA). The NHL is ran by idiots(yes Florida needs two teams). If it were smart it would add more teams in Canada and have two leagues like MLB and have them face off in the playoffs or the SC. But they rather keep their product on the channel VS where it flounders.
Face it. No one is sitting on ESPN,talk radio gabbing about the NHL Playoffs. I almost forgot it was starting until this thread. A lot of people who hate on the NBA have zero clue what they are talking about. You guys are all hung up on the Allen Iverson image that players are thugs and dont care. This season the NBA is doing very well. People are filling the seats and ratings are up. Last years NBA finals had the highest ratings since a Michael Jordan final. People are watching.
Lots of great young talent in the league right now and you people are missing it. A few to watch. Kevin Love,Derrick Rose,Westbrook,Durant,Blake Griffin,Dwight Howard. Also the Lakers and Bulls play great team defense and offense. Who ever said teams score 120 I know doesnt watch since the league avg is around 100. Only ten teams avg over 100.
IMO the NHL is "where randomness happens."
I don't give a shit if more people are watching the NBA. The fact that more people are watching doesn't make it a superior product; maybe if the NHL had the hype machine the NBA does, more people would watch. I prefer the NHL because, in my opinion, it is more exciting. I hate on the NBA because I've watched more than enough NBA to know it is boring, reptetitive, and predicatble.
If the world was run off of ratings, it would look something like this:
- Porn
- Porn
- Superbowl
- Porn
- Jersey Shore or some other stupid shit.
Meanwhile, none of Scorsese's movies have box office records...must be because Pirates and Titanic are superior products.
lock the thread. now. game over man, game over.
What is the point of watching the NBA playoffs if the outcome is already known? You don't have to be THE KNOWLEDGE to know that the Lakers will win the West again.
East is a bit more of a crapshoot but the Celtics wont' win because they traded Perkins, so it'll probably be the Bulls or Heat.
The best NBA series I remember seeing was GS - Dallas. That was a huge upset. GS lost in the next round. On the other hand, Montreal beat #1 Caps and Penguins to make it to the ECF. And Philly in that same year came back from 0-3 down against Boston.
I remember watching or listening to multiple Wings games where they won the President's Cup and did not win it all. The sport in the playoffs becomes totally random, totally unpredictable. That's a good thing.
The NBA is just so boring to watch. I would rather mow my lawn or do something productive.
April 13th, 2011 at 10:26 PM ^
news flash nobody is talking about bouncey ball once march madnesss is over. It is back to the baseball talk and NFL talk on sports talk radio, or just puck talk if you just listen to NHL radio on sirius/XM like me.
Saying the NBA playoffs are better than hockey because of higher ratings is like saying McDonalds is better than In N Out Burger because McDee's serves over one billion people.
April 14th, 2011 at 12:41 AM ^
So NBA sucks because no one talks about it, but hockey is better than NBA because no one watches it? Got it.
For being Dr. English, you totally misread my statement. I never said bball sucks because nobody is talking about it. I meant to say that people talking about a sport is not a qualitative indicator.
I mean I just like hockey at all levels better than basketball at all levels. I have no comment about relative playoff merits. It's just a personal, one entertains me more, thing.
I think another thing that people dont undertand is the spacing on a NBA court. With the three point line so far back it makes help defense harder and opens up more lanes. People who say "NCAA they play better defense" well no its just a lot easier. The play is compacted in NCAA. The three point line is too close. NCAA has no mid range game at all. Its either in the lane or a 3 point shot. I have no issues with this but the NBA is a different game because of the way the court is layed out. Do people see this? No.
I hate all these NBA misconceptions.
The NBA-hater contigent on this board is strong indeed.
Most of them don't know what the hell they're talking about
NHL, no question.
NHL and it's not even close.
Keep in mind like 8 teams have won the NBA championship. NBA playoffs are not one for upsets.