Golden State Warriors: Dominance is not bad for the NBA

The Golden State Warriors’ dominance is not bad for the NBA

The Golden State Warriors are completely dominating the NBA. Fifteen games into the postseason and the team by the bay is undefeated. In fact, the combination of Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green hasn’t lost since March.

Their unblemished record has only been threatened twice; a 20-point deficit to the Spurs at halftime was scary and they were on the ropes late in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Outside of those small hiccups, it’s been blowout city.

Fans, or maybe detractors of the league are calling the Warriors “boring.” The team with a record-breaking offense, the best collection of prolific shooters and three of the league’s last four MVPs is being considered boring.

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As fan of NBA poetry, I must disagree. The Golden State Warriors move, pass and shoot as harmoniously as a haiku, as smoothly as a sonnet. The team operates at break neck speed, blitzing up the floor with unparalleled tempo. Their offense is the prototype of how basketball is trying to and should evolve by passing quickly and shooting open threes.

The list of things more exciting than the Warriors is microscopic.

But the outcomes of their games are predictable. They win. Pretty much every time.

To make matters worse, the Warriors regularly build early leads, leaving their opponents dead on arrival and down by 20 points with six minutes left in the first half. It’s like the scene in Gladiator where the trainer, Proximo, chides protagonist and bad ass gladiator Maximus for killing his opponents too quickly. “You have to learn to work the crowd” he tells him. In other words, at least allow the fight to be competitive.

Continued success is sometimes monotonous. So to those who call these NBA Finals boring, I disagree but fair. It’s like knowing the end of the movie before it begins. Some people are can be marveled by skilled acting is or watch to see if a small blooper sneaks past the editors. Others just won’t.

But even if there is so much angst against these Finals, people are watching. Fans are tuning in like basketball on the internet hasn’t been invented yet.

Despite complaints, more eyes are on these Finals than any other since 1998. Games 1 and 2 combined to have the highest ratings of any Finals game since Michael Jordan laced up his Nikes against the Utah Jazz. At one point, 23.1 million pairs of eyes watched Steph Curry and LeBron James light up Game 2.

And it looks like at least some of the fans who called this series “boring” turned into Game 3. Ratings were up from 14 percent from last year. Coffee across the country must have been flowing Thursday morning, because the game’s most watched point was between 11:30 and 11:45 pm E.T.

I guess that last statistic was somewhat superfluous, but you get my point. More people are watching these Finals than when Kobe three-peated, when Kevin Garnett famously reminded us “anything is possible” or when LeBron led the Heat to four straight titles. And that’s not counting the chord cutters.

The NBA, with all its current hype, is showcasing its two best teams in the league playing a high level of basketball

The Finals aren’t just demanding attention on television. The Warriors and Cavaliers are owning social media. According Talkwalker, a group that analyzes social media activity, there have been more than 500,000 mentions of the NBA finals on social media over the past week. #DubNation is the most popular hashtag, spearheaded by regular Tweets from social media titan Steph Curry.

By comparison, the Stanley Cup Finals has garnered a meager 96,000 mentions on social media during that same time. Yes, that series is more competitive. Yes, fans in Nashville and Pittsburg are berserk. But outside these fandom bubbles, the following of the hockey championship is a small slice of what basketball’s is.

Fans obviously don’t care that this is the third straight matchup between Warriors and Cavs. Even though Game 3 was close, fans don’t mind watching Golden State dominate Basketball. Viewers are devouring this championship series. The numbers don’t lie.

So STOP complaining. Yes, the word stop does deserve emphasis, because you’re likely being hypocritical. The competition is good and the games have been competitive. And if you’re going to complain, please don’t watch. Binge House of Cards or watch whatever reality show is on FOX. I don’t care. Because right now, it’s obvious too many people are complaining, than snatching their remotes and flipping to ABC.

But could all this hype backfire? With, assumedly more casual fans watching the NBA now than any time since 1998, could fans be turned off completely by an uneven series? I think on a micro level, the constant scoring perpetuates the negative stereotype that NBA players are only focused on offense. And the chippy fouls (looking at you Zaza Pachulia and Green) don’t help the league’s image.

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Thinking big picture, this is a positive. The NBA, with all its current hype, is showcasing its two best teams in the league playing a high level of basketball. This won’t turn into a Floyd Maywayther situation, where millions tune in only to watch the man nicknamed “money” half-slug his way through 12 rounds, hardly earning a nick or cut.

These are two powerhouses, giving fans all the entertainment they can handle. And even if some dub it boring, the ratings say otherwise.