The NBA play-in tournament has already begun, and it reinvigorated my passion for playoff basketball. Wednesday night I watched as 38-year-old Stephen Curry and 36-year-old Draymond Green refused to lose a game against the Clippers. This game ultimately will not matter for who will win the title, but the players put their blood, sweat and tears out there to win, and it reminded me of why I love this tournament.
It is because these NBA players just refuse to lose games in this tournament. Their dream since birth is to win the Finals, but 15 teams will fail to do so. Fifteen teams will pour their hearts out, just to lose in six games against a superior opponent. The March Madness tournament is amazing, but this tournament features the best in the world, battling at the top of their game, and the tournament lasts till mid-June.
My earliest playoff memory
Everyone remembers their first taste of the playoffs more fondly than their other memories, and I am no different. The memory that sticks with me the most, was my favorite team the Indiana Pacers taking on the Miami Heat in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals. The Miami Heat seemed like undefeatable gods to a seven-year-old Campbell, and the Pacers were the scrappy underdog story.
If you're from Indiana, you were born to love basketball, and specifically a basketball underdog story. I could go on and on about why this is, but I think that would be getting away from the point of this article, so I will just leave it as this; I love basketball, and I love an underdog.
This led me to get grabbed by this Pacers team. LeBron James was immediately painted as a villain in my life, and it would stay that way for a while. I was captivated by the Pacer, in hindsight ironic, hero Paul George. The Pacers ended up losing this series in seven, but they captivated my young mind, and ever since, the NBA Playoffs have always had a grip on me.
NBA regular season
The NBA regular season is terrible, but perfectly serves its purpose, which is to make the playoffs better. The NBA regular season is so unbearingly unwatchable, that the second we get the players to try again, it is a breath of fresh air. The 82-game regular season sees a quarter of the teams quit half way through, making most matchups sloppy blowouts featuring players who were in the G-League a week ago. During the playoffs, a team cuts their rotation down, and teams trust the stars to shine through, and take them through the grueling playoff format. So, while I hate the regular season, I can appreciate the value in making the playoffs even better.
The format
The more I have looked at it, one of the main reasons that I love the playoffs is with how they schedule them. March Madness has just wrapped up, and left me eager for more basketball, and the NBA Playoffs are set up for that. I also think it’s so refreshing that during the first round, you can watch every game individually, as they are hardly ever stacked on top of each other. You can have an entire day of sitting down on the couch, eating pizza and watching great basketball.
The other advantage of the format is that you get at least four games of every series. After I watch a great NBA regular season game, I feel eager to watch the next game that they play. In the playoffs you will get a rematch immediately until a team has beaten the other enough that the series feels like it should be done. This allows for several different schematic adjustments throughout the series, and creates a chess match between coaches that is always intense.
The drama
The NBA Playoffs will always deliver, as there are just so many games. In order to win the playoffs, a team has to win 16 games, and on that way, there is bound to be fireworks. Last year's run was special to me as the team making those fireworks was typically my Pacers, but taking bias aside, those late-game heroics were thrilling.
The NBA Playoffs always have moments that everyone remembers, and this is why it is the most consistently great basketball a person can watch.
Why this year's playoffs captivate me
This year's postseason is bound to have these firework moments that I talked about earlier, but that is not why this postseason in particular is catching my eye. This year's playoffs in particular, captivate my eyes, because it is as open of a playoff as I can remember.
There is a favorite to win it all, the Thunder, but nobody thinks that they are a guaranteed win. The Nuggets took them to seven last season, and nobody can count them out of winning the conference when Nikola Jokic is playing. The Timberwolves have been to two straight conference finals, and could certainly get over the hump. The Spurs are young, but other than their youth, they don't feature many weaknesses. These are all title contenders, and they only come from half of the league.
The East is very open, as nobody thinks that the one-seeded Pistons are the sure fire No. 1 team in the conference. The Celtics are surprising, but certainly very good this year, especially with how Jayson Tatum has played as of late. The Knicks haven’t been able to get past the Pacers, but now won’t need to. And finally the Cavaliers, while taking a step down from last season, are certainly looming around in the picture. All of these teams could win the title, but also all of them are susceptible to being upset early, and that is what makes this year's field so captivating.
Conclusion
The NBA Playoffs is a three-month long journey that features the best players in the world, going all out to win a title. Role players step up, stars fail and ultimately the champions rise. It is the best basketball you can possibly see, for three months, and I want to watch every second of it.
