The NBA is as boring as it has ever been. It is a guarantee that the same finals matchup from the past two year is inevitable, Cleveland vs. Golden State. These two teams are also a combined 14-1 right now in the playoffs, and Golden State was the first team to go undefeated en route to the championship. Now, some basketball purists might think that seeing the best two teams play year after year is great, but most people watching will agree that seeing the same Finals every year, on top of other things, is boring. 
       So, how did the NBA get so boring? It starts with so called "super teams". Most basketball fans can accept that Lebron popularized these teams with his "Decision" to move to Miami years ago and join future hall of farmers Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. They went on to win two championships, and made it into the finals every year that Lebron was there, until he decided to create another super team in Cleveland. This chain of events is what led the newest super team, the Warriors, to come into fruition. Last summer, Kevin Durant decided he to create a super team with them, because he wanted to finally win a championship. Durant left his team, the OKC Thunder, to join Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson. This is why NBA fanatics are about to watch the same finals for the third year in a row. Players in the league today aren't as competitive as before. Players now want to win the easiest way possible, which is a change from the previous eras where the sport was competitive between almost every team that played. 
       In addition this era of super teams, NBA viewers are subject to putrid refereeing. For example, two years ago the Bulls were going to be 3-1 up in a best of 7 series against the super Cavaliers team. In game four, the head coach of Cleveland called a timeout in the fourth quarter. They had burned all of their timeouts already, and the refs are supposed to give a technical to a coach that calls a timeout they do not have. Instead, the Cavaliers retained possession and Lebron hit a buzzer beater to even the series. They went on to win the series in 6 games. Referee mishaps such as this ruin basketball for its viewers. There is no excuse for a ref to miss a call that can completely change the game, especially because they have the ability to replay and correct the call! It is boring and feels like a waste of time to watch a team lose because of a bad decision by a ref. 
       These two factors that deter any future popularity of the NBA are glaring ones. Today's national basketball league is as boring as the game has ever been. This is due to many factors, and the two most important that the commissioner should be working to fix are the subpar refs and to punish players for creating super teams. They can fix these issues by giving poor refs less pay, and the players who create super teams less pay, because as everyone knows, money rules all.


by Jake Sullivan