As the NBA tries unsuccessfully to manufacture excitement on Christmas for its slate of games, the real truth is impossible to ignore. The NBA is becoming less compelling to watch because there is no one to hate anymore. Since the 1980s, when the league began expanding from 23 teams to the present 30, the rivalries between teams have been on the slippery slope to insignificance. The league schedule has become just a gigantic list of games with no grudge matches and
Every now and then I appear on the BBC World Service, which is broadcast in about 1,800 different countries — or something just short of that number. I aways enjoy explaining the NBA to the Brits, because their knowledge of basketball still trails their knowledge of cricket by something like 1,800 percent. In this appearance, we discussed the lack of rivalries in today’s NBA — which is astonishing to the British because teams can play each other as many as 11 times