Round 2 Action in the NBA

Due to the length of the blog, I am splitting up my thoughts of the 2008 NBA season and postseason into a few blogs.

As I have written before, this season might be one of the most memorable in NBA history. There are so many interesting story lines and crazy subplots going on that fans of almost every NBA city have built some lasting memories. Through the last few years, the NBA was dominated by the "big three" of the Western conference. Dallas, Phoenix and San Antonio were simply playing at a level that no other team could match. But this year, there have been early exits by both the Suns and Mavericks, as well as failed blockbuster trades and coaching changes. While the Suns and Mavericks have been coming back to the pack, it looks like teams like Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Utah, and New Orleans have jumped into the upper echelon of the NBA. At his point in the playoffs, it looks as if anybody could win their series as Utah, Los Angeles, Boston, Cleveland, San Antonio, New Orleans, Detroit, and Orlando are the only teams left. The odds on favorites to meet in the finals are Los Angeles and Boston, but after the last two days, neither of these teams looks very dominant.

For those of you who have been watching the playoffs, I am sure you have noticed how much better the TNT coverage has been compared to ABC and ESPN. ESPN has been especially awful to watch as they have Stephen A. Smith almost forcing viewers to change the channel during pregame, halftime, and postgame shows. TNT on the other hand has provided maybe the most entertaining coverage in the history of sports. They hit the jackpot with their postgame show "Inside the NBA." The show focuses on Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith throwing out all of the normal etiquette of your basic sports show and gives the viewer funny, honest opinions on teams.

While "Inside the NBA" has written the book on how to have a great postgame show, former-head-coach-turned-announcer Jeff Van Gundy has been equally as impressive as the color commentator in several of the games. His off the wall, yet insightful opinions on the games have been hilarious, confusing, and outrageous all at once. Most recently he demanded that Lebron James wear a scarlet "F" on his jersey for the rest of the series because of his excessive flopping (flopping is a term that describes a player diving onto the ground as if he was hit by a truck when in reality he was barely touched).