Why NFL Will Always Be Better Than NBA!

 

  The NBA Conference Finals was painful to watch. After game fives of both Eastern and Western Conference Finals, I knew exactly what was going to happen. The Boston Celtics had a 3-2 lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, and the Houston Rockets had their 3-2 lead against the Golden State Warriors in the West. For the past three seasons, NBA has featured the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, so why were we expecting anything different this year? Once the Cavs and Warriors fell 2-3 in their series, I called for two straight victories for both clubs. That is exactly what happened with both the Cavs and the Warriors winning game seven on the road. Seemed like NBA had written a Hollywood script for this year's path to NBA Finals. In the NFL, nothing seems scripted for the regular-season and/or the post-season. There are several reasons why NBA can't never be as good as the NFL! Let's examine how much better the NFL is compared to the NBA.

Importance of the regular season.

  There are sixteen games in an NFL regular-season. Every single game during the regular season means a lot. Not all games are equally important, but they all are important. To get to the post-season and to be in a great position to win those post-season games, a team needs to secure home-field advantage for the two games they play before the Super Bowl. Seeding is very crucial for teams to have success in the playoffs. If we look at it, it has been the number one or number two seeds from both the AFC and NFC Conferences to participate in the Super Bowl for the past five seasons. The New England Patriots who have played and won the most Super Bowls since the 2000s, dominate in the post-season when they have home-field advantage and struggle when they have to go on the road. So teams in the NFL know that during the regular season they have to win eleven plus games out of sixteen in order to secure home-field advantage for at least one playoff game. The regular season in the NFL means something.

  As for the NBA, the regular season is just too long. If a team losses majority of its first thirty games it will still be in the hunt for the playoffs. So the first two or three months in the NBA basically are meaningless for teams that are really good and know that they will definitely go deep in the playoffs. Also, seeding doesn't matter in the NBA as it was clearly proven this year by the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Warriors made it to the postseason as the number two seed and eliminated the Houston Rockets in game seven at Houston to reach the NBA Finals. On the other hand, the Cavs made it to the Eastern Conference playoffs as the number four seed and eliminated the young Boston Celtics in game seven at Boston to secure a spot in the NBA Finals. One home-team losing game seven is understandable, but two teams losing game sevens at home in back to back nights is mind-boggling. NBA season is long, requires a lot of traveling and effort, but it doesn't matter which two teams get to finish the year with the best record.

NFL playoff format is way better than NBA playoff format.

 

A seven-game series in the NBA playoffs used to be very exciting to watch. It used to be fun and full of action when players and teams gave their full effort and energy in every single game of the series. These days especially since the Golden State Warriors started winning playoff games with Stephen Curry as the face of the franchise, players and teams don't compete hard in a playoff series after they fall behind by a big margin in the game. Teams don't give their hundred percent in a playoff series unless it is game seven or an elimination game. If a series is tied at two games a peace and one team falls behind by fifteen points late second quarter, that team ends up waiving the white flag in the second half of the game and accepts their defeat. They would willingly fall 2-3 in the series because they know they will have two more games to come back and win the series. For the NFL playoffs, there is only one game in each round to be played. In order to advance to the next round, a team needs to win that one game. Players and teams can't take a single second or a single snap lightly throughout the game. In a football playoff game, each quarter, each drive, and each play matters, because there are no second or third chances for teams to make up for losing or getting blown-out in the game. Every playoff game is a 'win or go home' game.

  Another negative fact about the NBA playoffs is that it offers a lot of blowout games. Out of seven possible games in a series, five to six of them are usually blowouts. If a team starts a series down 0-2 and were completely dominated in both of those games, it doesn't mean that they are done and the series is over. That team could come right back and blow out the other team in the next two games to tie the series. The 2016 NBA Finals between Cavs and the Warriors is considered to be one of the greatest finals of all time. Only one game in that series was a tightly-contested game and that was game seven. Besides game seven, the first six games of the series were blowouts. The Golden State Warriors won the first two games by fifteen and thirty-three points respectively. Then out of nowhere, Cleveland Cavaliers won game three by thirty points. In game three, it seemed like that the Warriors had forgotten how to play. However, in game four, Warriors seemed to have taken control of the series again after the beat they Cavs by eleven points. Then in games five and six, Cavs won back to back by first fifteen points and then by fourteen points. It was finally in game seven when a game was decided in the final minute of the game.

  The entire Finals' series in 2016 was a roller coaster. This year's Western and Eastern Conference Finals were both played out as roller coasters. Both Cavs and the Warriors at some point of the series were dominating and other times they were being dominated. In the NFL, you don't get to see a team going through a roller coaster during their playoff run, as a team just can't afford to have bad games in the playoffs. If they do play bad in the game, they will more than likely lose and thus, be eliminated from the playoffs. NFL teams in playoff games have had a bad quarter or quarters and then came storming back to win games in the final minutes. However, that doesn't happen all the time. It is rare for a football team to win a playoff game after being completely dominated in the first half on the field and in terms of the box score. Playoff football is always thrilling to watch, whereas NBA playoff is mostly boring these days.

Finally, the NFL isn't about joining forces and forming super teams.

  Since the summer of 2010, when LeBron James decided to go to Miami and joined forces with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, players in the NBA have been switching teams to play with their buddies or at places where they feel comfortable. As of today, the NBA has a super-team with the Golden State Warriors that features Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Kevin Durant. Besides the Warriors, there are the Houston Rockets with Chris Paul, James Harden, and Clint Capela, and Boston Celtics with Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, and Jason Tatum. Now granted that the Rockets and Celtics are not in Warriors' league yet, but they are the closest to them and doing everything to dethrone them. So basically in the NBA, there is one team way up top, then there are two really good teams, then there is LeBron James, and then there is everybody else. Only four teams are contending for a championship and the rest are just playing along to get through the season. There are rumors that LeBron James is planning to go to Philadephia 76ers next year to join forces with Joel Embid and Ben Simmons. NBA is all about superstars and friends playing together.

  In the NFL, we can't do super-teams. Yes, we can form a great team in the NFL for a year or two, but that's about it. In the NFL, teams have fifty-three players to pay on a roster. They have to deal with salary-cap that is very limited. Major injuries occur every week or so. Just the game being super physical makes it hard for GMs to pay big money to all of their key players. All of this prevents super-teams to be formed in professional football. NFL can offer a very good offensive team, a very good defensive team, or a very balanced team, but it can't offer a star-studded team. Not having a star-studded team makes the game of football competitive, fun, full of action and surprises, and thrilling. In the NBA, you can predict who's going to the Finals during summer league in July. As for the NFL, the New England Patriots are always the favorites to go to the Super Bowl, but even they don't make it every year. Competition is what we want to see in sports. Not one or two teams dominating the entire league every single year.