Neutrals: Who do you want to win the Championship?

[Nowoco]

This is the most unlikely final four* of any NBA season maybe ever but which storyline do you want to see most?

Knicks - First championship for 52 years. Huge boost to ratings and interest for the league moving forward.
Pacers - First ever championship. Something of a Cinderella story against all odds.
Wolves - First ever championship. Young American star probably becomes face of the league.
OKC - First ever championship (don't even try counting Seattle's). Young team, likely a dynasty incoming.

*Obviously assuming Denver and Boston don't turn it around.

[Akeem34TheDream]

When i was younger i always rooted for upsets. Nowadays i started to root for teams who i feel are better. But in the end its the etory that matters. I think OKC championship this year would be a cool story. Knicks title would be fun no doubt. Ant winning fmvp would be crazy. But Pacers winning would be so random to me. It wouldn't even be fun or interesting. I am not rooting for OKC but i am most comfortable with them winning.

[ArbitraryWater]

When i was younger i always rooted for upsets. Nowadays i started to root for teams who i feel are better. But in the end its the etory that matters. I think OKC championship this year would be a cool story. Knicks title would be fun no doubt. Ant winning fmvp would be crazy. But Pacers winning would be so random to me. It wouldn't even be fun or interesting. I am not rooting for OKC but i am most comfortable with them winning.

Funny because I agree.


When I was younger, I tended to root for the underdog. And I do still want to not have monopolies on winning, but spread the joy. But when it comes to specific match-ups within a tournament, I def want the better team to prevail and AVOID upsets, so we get the logical and higher quality matches.

Its like when youre young youre a bit more dreamy/emotional, and then the logical side takes over and you just want common sense to prevail.

In tennis, I hate upsets. I want to see the best players duke it out at the end of a tournament.

[John8204]

Shaq's last year on TNT has to feature Howard in the Hall and Rudy with a chip

[ShawkFactory]

Funny because I agree.


When I was younger, I tended to root for the underdog. And I do still want to not have monopolies on winning, but spread the joy. But when it comes to specific match-ups within a tournament, I def want the better team to prevail and AVOID upsets, so we get the logical and higher quality matches.

Its like when youre young youre a bit more dreamy/emotional, and then the logical side takes over and you just want common sense to prevail.

In tennis, I hate upsets. I want to see the best players duke it out at the end of a tournament.

Right? Alcaraz getting upset in the semis only to have Sinner dominate whoever beat him in the final is no fun.

Same with March Madness. I'd now much rather see the four great #1 seeds in the final four than watch Florida, Duke, Houston, etc. dominate Cinderalla Loyola-Chicago or whoever. Upsets are fun when there are a still a ton of other matchups but you're right it ruins the product at the end.

As for who is left, I think OKC and NYK would be the most fun matchup followed closely by Wolves/NYK with the KAT storyline.

[HylianNightmare]

Anyone where it's the teams first title

[gengiskhan]

Im really torn between IND and OKC.

Thats gonna be the NBA Finals btw.

I think this is going 7 games. and IND will pull it off over MVP led OKC.

[highwhey]

if it's not Minnesota, it's just not good basketball, i always say.

[MrFonzworth]

Wolves. Rudy leading a team to a ship would be cinematic.

[Mask the Embiid]

Caruso or Ant


#Thankyoucaruso

[Akeem34TheDream]

Wolves. Rudy leading a team to a ship would be cinematic.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJi54AQXsAIAq4Q.jpg

[tpols]

Knicks or Wolves.

[ArbitraryWater]

OKC cause the rest have no business doing it.

I mean the Knicks are legit actually but I have no interest in seing a Brunson/KAT led team win a chip.

[Wally450]

Its between the Knicks and Pacers for me. I don't care for either West team.

If the Knicks win, they may have to call the National Guard to MSG for the amount of hooliganism that will take place.

[Overdrive]

Wolves. Idc that Xiao would become a self dick sucking perpetuum mobile after that. Their fans went through the most hardship.

[Manny98]

Anyone but OKC

I can't stand SGA and his flopping antics

[Kblaze8855]

Ant is exactly the kind of asshole I’d like to see the league be forced to embrace. Old school “We aren’t friends” kinda competitor but with a modern game nobody can really hate. Between he, SGA, Brunson, and Hali I don’t have any strong rooting interest or opposition. I barely care anymore to be honest. The overwhelming number of injuries this year and last coincided with the game itself just being less entertaining to me. I’ve never cared less about the playoffs.

I wrote out a whole “More than ever it just feels like a matter of who doesn’t get hurt” topic before Tatum even went down but ended up not posting it.

We do the whole legacy talk yearly as if the wrong random injury or lack of it isn’t often the deciding factor.

Everyone with long term legacy talks has already been eliminated and at least 3 of the teams they were on were decimated by injury.

At this point…it’s whatever. Theres nobody to really mock. I don’t know a single fan of any of these franchises other than the Knicks and I never see them in person any more.

There is no result that will get an emotional reaction out of me at this point but Ant would be the most amusing to see installed at the face of the next era. So them I suppose.

[Nowoco]

I wrote out a whole “More than even it just feels like a matter of who doesn’t get hurt” topic before Tatum even went down but ended up not posting it.

We do the whole legacy talk yearly as if the wrong random injury or lack of it isn’t often the deciding factor.

Everyone with long term legacy talks has already been eliminated and at least 3 of the teams they were on were decimated by injury.

This, sadly, is painstakingly accurate and its been this way since the 2015 Warriors somehow managed to face teams without their best or second best player (and more in some cases) in every round.

To win the NBA title you need to stay healthy, its that simple. It's a war of attrition and it shouldn't be. No-one wants to see someone win by default.

The worst thing about the NBA today isn't load management, too many threes or even the tedious overlong RS. It's teams in the PS being destroyed by injuries every year.

[rawimpact]

Wolves because of what kblaze said. The guy represents the NBA of the past. I'm all for Min or a small market team winning it.

[Kblaze8855]

What I don’t get is why teams are so sure the modern ways of preventing injury are effective . You go the whole year with these elaborate load management plans with games to sit out planned in advance, ducking back to backs, extra rest days, less practice, and general pampering with all the emphasis on core strength and fitness and flexibility….avoid heavy lifting…save your joints….



And every playoffs gets ruined anyway.

You can’t prevent coming down on someone’s foot or whatever…but guys are just coming up lame running down the court. Tearing Achilles just trying to take off.

When do they go back to the drawing board and stop assuming less physical activity results in stronger bodies?

I was as big a fan of the nba as you could ever meet and for 2 years in a row I just don’t give a shit who wins because it tells me almost nothing.

Well I guess it does lend credence to that old Jerry Krause take that organizations win titles. You need depth, coaching, training, and all that….but it isn’t sexy to compare organizations.

So we compare players instead and straight up ignore that it takes a long list of things they can’t handle individually to win. Most of all luck.