Now if we could just cancel all the Laker's games as well. Except the NBA probably can't, because the league would piss off Chinese sponsors.
Finally. It was ridiculous and an embarassment to the league. That was the product you want to show to non bball junkies??? Who even makes these schedules? They should have been fired. Couldn't they see from the start of the season what a trainwreck NY and esp LAL would be?
I don't think anyone though they'd be this bad. I mean, a healthy Melo, a Kobe coming back from injury. The team still had a marquee superstar/star, and NY/LA is a gigantic market. It's hard to say that NY and LA would be as bad as they are, at the start of the season.
Why does the NBA not just institute "flex-scheduling," like the NFL? Considering the top teams this year are traditional powers - Golden State, Atlanta, Portland, Toronto, and Memphis. Who are all really fun teams to watch. There should be more compelling matchup on Sunday, instead of the boring old "Boston or LA."
"Slump" isn't the appropriate description. You have to be decent before to go through a slump. They simply suck.
Because the NBA is in bed with the media who have their power base in LA, NY, Boston, and those kind of cities. The media there perpetuate the illusion that those cities are the places where players should seek to be, even if those teams happen to suck--so eventually a star player is going to want to go there to try his luck. So they'd be shooting themselves one way or another in the foot if they actually had to promote teams who deserve to be watched, rather than the teams who just happen to be media darlings such as NY and LA.
That's a start. Now remove Mar 4 Lakers at Heat from ESPN and replace with Cavs at Raps or Griz at Rox, Wiz at Jazz on Mar 18 on ESPN and replace with ATL at GSW. That would fix as much of the nat'l schedule as possible.