NBA Insider with Ken Berger

Cleveland – People I meet always ask me, “Who do you root for?” Rather than correct their grammar, I say, “Nobody. I root for good stories and fast games.”

The sports writer life is a misunderstood existence. I wouldn’t trade it for anything – in fact, I’m not quite sure what else I would be capable of doing to earn a living wage – but few people really know what it’s about.

If you know any sports writers, you probably hear them complain. A lot. But trust me, there is no better way to make a living. We all know it. Maybe we complain out of guilt that we’re having so much fun while other people have to do important jobs.

So back to good stories and fast games. Neither of my rooting interests appears to be attainable in this NBA Finals between the dynastic Spurs and overmatched Cavs. The first two games were unentertaining blowouts. The third one was an unwatchable bore. The fourth one can be anything it wants, as long as the Spurs wind up with more points than the Cavs so this series and the ever-shrinking viewing public can be put out of their misery.

Then, the people with the big brains at the NBA and the TV networks can begin work on a much more important task than determining who wins this drama-less series. That is, fixing the product that hardly anybody wants to watch.

I wrote about a possible solution in the previous post, and I’ll be expanding on it in a column in Thursday’s paper. (You know, the thing with the pictures and headlines and ink.) Something has to be done to save basketball fans and future generations from boredom.

The glory days of Jordan and Magic and Bird are over, and they’re not coming back. To the NBA’s credit, it realizes this. It also understands that in the global, Internet-driven marketplace, Nielsen ratings are not the panacea they once were for measuring the public’s interest in a particular sporting event.

The NBA is hardly the only sport whose TV ratings are plummeting in this new age of widening entertainment options. But it has to find a way to capitalize on the good things it has to offer. As was illustrated in the early rounds of the playoffs – Golden State vs. Dallas, San Antonio vs. Phoenix – people will watch and buzz will be generated when talented, evenly matched teams engage in a competitive, dramatic playoff series.

Unless the powers that be figure out how to get the best teams to the Finals – regardless of what conference they are from – the most talented, evenly matched teams will continue to avoid playing each other on the biggest stage.

The popular solution of having elite teams in the biggest markets – New York, Boston, L.A., Chicago – is archaic and won’t solve the real problem. If the Spurs were playing, say, the Suns or Mavericks in the Finals, I doubt the TV audience would be as large as it was when Michael Jordan won his last championship in 1998. There is no Jordan, never will be, and the marketplace has changed. The NBA can’t control that.

But what it can control is getting the two best teams playing for a championship. Then, the rooting public would be cheering for more games and more drama instead of wishing it was over already.

It can’t be good for the health of a sport when the fans are rooting for the same things sports writers root for. If you can’t give us a good story, just get it over with fast.