I think baseball gets pretty dramatic. Football is the easiest to watch because its win or go home..... Basketball has too many teams to get really excited. Still getting acclimated with NHL. This can be anything mind you. Best format, most exciting, history, whatever........
For me, it's gotta be the NBA. It's my favorite sport, I love the format(Seven games doesn't leave much to chance, unlike the NFL's one game), and nothing is better than being alive during the first round of the playoffs. Turn on the TV any night of the week, and there is a double(Or Triple)-header going.
First of all I hate baseball and don't know what hockey is, so that pretty much leaves basketball and football. For me : NBA. I hate football because a team can have an off game and blow it. In the NBA the multi-game series is a better show. It's like battle, retreat, reload, attack, repeat.
Sure the NFL is only one game, but you get a WHOLE WEEK to prepare for it. That kinda takes away "the chance" factor, since whoever is the most prepared will win the game. That being said, the best playoffs is a toss-up between Baseball and the NFL. I put baseball only because the game changes DRASTICALLY from the regular season to the post-season. Why are the games almost an hour longer?... because the players concentrate on every at-bat so much more. Starters suddenly become relievers... Aces suddenly become closers. No sports has as much strategy going on during the game as much as playoff baseball... and you get 3 GLORIOUS series to view all the intricacies at work. (plus, a walkoff HR is STILL the most dramatic ending to any sport... regardless) The NFL is the greatest league on earth... thus they have to have a great playoffs (and they do... as long as they don't add any more teams). Basketball is great... but its waaayyy tooo long due to the vast amount of teams involved from the start. This year will be even longer, since they're going to a best of 7 first round series.
Basketball because I like the sport better, but baseball comes close because of how important each play is. I think that if I was completely unbias I would pick baseball. (All of this reminds me of those commercials that used to run on ESPN about 'October')
It all depends whose in it each year for me. Like the NHL i would have never considered a great playoff sport, but last year so many upsets left and right, it made it real exciting. The NBA is the same way, usually one team dominates for a number of years, until last year. MLB is usually always pretty exciting, i dont like the season much but the playoffs are exciting to watch.
Totally agree. There is so much drama in baseball. So much managerial strategy its ridiculous. It has history, and it has better cinderellas IMO. It used to be a very exclusive club to get into to even make the playoffs (2 teams for each league) - Football has become to even keeled. You could throw a dart on a team and they could win it all. I like parody as much as the next guy, but there havent been any dynasties like the Cowboys, 49ers, or Steelers in a long time. Basketball has too many damn teams as stated before. NHL is growing on me.
I'll go with the NFL, because the one and done format is easily the most dramatic and exciting. Also, with the NFL, the better team still usually wins in this format. If you opened this up to all sports, and not just pro, the NCAA basketball tourney would put ALL of these to shame, IMO.
NHL. Period. Without a doubt. You don't know hatred until your team plays it's rival and there's a vicious cheap shot that costs you a star player in game one of the NHL playoffs. Seriously, NBA is my favorite sport, I've ahd the Broncos win 2 SB's, but NOTHING compares to NHL playoffs.
NBA Games are closer more often, most level of dramatic consistency. NFL Games are sometimes blow outs and not as interesting, can produce some of the BEST games EVER though.. not to mention it's the biggest sport and each game means a lot. MLB Games aren't always close, but recent years has produced major drama. Small market teams sometime kill the luster. NHL Zzzzzzzz
bingo. the players are more loveable in NHL I was actually happy for the nordiques to win when they had Ray Borque. you watch a guy play his heart out for 15 years it gets to you. Messier guarenteeing a game 6 win and bringing a cup to NYC. can you imagine the balls to guarentee a win in NYC, the media here is just evil. and then to back it up with a hat trick and an eventual Cup win. penalty shots cheap shots. Goalies stoping every single amazing shot players carying the entire team. 7 game series that drind on. every minute counts. in the NBA they dont even play till the 3rd Q
1. NBA 2. NFL 3. MLB I prefer the NBA playoffs the best. Mostly because its by far my favorite sport and there are some great rivarlies that are made during the playoffs. And nothing like 2 stars going H2H when the season is on the line no other sport captures that element. ex- Iverson vs Vince a few years ago some of the best games youll ever watch NFL is nice but the parody of the league has brought down the playoffs and the league as a whole down imo. Its been a while since we've had 2 truly great teams competing in the superbowl. NBA the power is shifted in 1 conference, but you usually still get 2 great teams playing H2H sometime during the bracket. MLB- Baseball needs unique matchups more than anybody else or people simpy wont watch. Games take to long to finish and not enough action. Most games are pitching duels which get pretty dull for me if it dosent involve the Astros. NHL- I say Ive watched about 10 mintues of Hockey in my whole life.
well my favorite are the college football D1 playof... oh wait... sorry. that's essentially my analysis. outside of the first round in the nba, you usually get good, intense, close games every time. in the nfl you can have a bears or 49ers or TB just rip through the playoffs and provide absolutely no drama whatsoever. or you can have NE win on a last second FG or buffalo lose on one. but the inconsistency and fact that pro football is my 3rd favorite of the big 3 make it hard to pick over basketball. baseball, the last 2 innings can be amazing and there is so much riding on every pitch that it's great. of course the cubs can jump out 8-0 and render the rest of the game meaningless. and like vj23k said, the first round is just awesome with all the games going on all the time. same with the first 2 rounds of march madness, 48 games in 4 days, that's my favorite two days in all of sports. also, in football, while having a whole week to prepare might not leave strategy to chance, there's still the chance your star qb just plays like crap for only the 3rd time all season or something and you're screwed and 16 games are all for naught whereas a baseball or basketball playoff usually assures that an evening out process will occur and the better team will win. but hell, they're all fine with me, anything that's as intense as the playoffs and involves sports means i'll be spending endless hours in front of the tv. and it's parity, not parody (although sometimes it's both).
2 words - Super Bowl Every year, the biggest sporting event of the season is the big game. Also, the best teams are actually rewarded with a first round bye. The only bad thing is, there are so few games in the NFL playoffs, but that just makes each one more meaningful. Oddly, the NFL has the worst all-star game.
Very true. They should have a rookies vs. sophmores game like the NBA does. I'd watch that more than the pro-bowl any day.
So you can watch a bunch of first and second year players compete in a glorfied game of flag football?