The NBA has a massive problem when it comes to parity – one that can, and will, be solved this season.
Over the past 30 seasons, only four championships have seen a matchup that has not featured one of these players: Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Those years were 1994 and 1995, when the Houston Rockets won back-to-back in between the Bulls’ two three-peats, 2006, when the Miami Heat won their first championship over the Dallas Mavericks, and 2019, when the Toronto Raptors claimed their first championship against the Golden State Warriors.
If you add a few more players to that list, like Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neil and Stephen Curry – all players who had multiple championship victories as the star of their teams – one of those seven players have appeared in every NBA Finals over the last 30 years.
For the first time since 1991, the NBA and its fans have the opportunity to see something they haven’t seen in a championship series in three decades: fresh faces.
Of the remaining four playoff teams in the conference finals, only two players who have ever won a ring, Rajon Rondo and Kawhi Leonard – both current members of the Los Angeles Clippers. Serge Ibaka has also won a championship, however, he is out for the rest of the season. Some of the players on the remaining rosters have championship experience, yet none of them were the faces of their teams when they won.
Moreover, since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976, the Phoenix Suns have the lone NBA Finals appearance of the remaining teams in the conference finals – a series which they lost to the Chicago Bulls in 1993. The Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks both have pre-merger banners, while the Clippers are only appearing in their first Western Conference Finals in their 51-year history.
Fans have complained for years that they are just getting the same few stars or matchups year after year, but that is no longer the case.
Regardless of what happens with the Clippers – who are currently down 0-2 to the Suns – the only star with finals experience is Leonard. It is not time to write LA off yet – they already came back from down 0-2 twice these playoffs – but even if they advance, it could be an opportunity to see Paul George on the NBA’s biggest stage for the first time with Leonard’s health up in the air.
The finals matchup fans should be cheering for is Bucks vs Suns because of the potentially great storylines that fans have been dying to see play out. Will Chris Paul in his first NBA Finals? Can two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo stake his claim as the next face of the league? Is Devin Booker the next great clutch/lethal scorer in the mold of his mentor, the late Kobe Bryant? Will Khris Middleton finally be appreciated and no longer relegated to the moniker of most underrated player in the NBA?
The Bucks and Suns are also small market teams, ones that can show the NBA and its players that you do not need to go to New York or California to chase a ring. This should inspire other small market franchises to not give up hope. Young talented teams like the New Orleans Pelicans and the Memphis Grizzlies should not give up hope that one day a championship will come, even though they rank 50th and 51st respectively in terms of media market size, according to the Nielson rankings.
Over the past decade, LeBron and the Warriors dynasty may have made fans and those inside the league alike forget that any team can make it to the finals. If the Bucks and Suns advance, they can be a reminder that all it takes is savvy drafting and maybe a few trades to get over the hump.
As for the NBA, this potential matchup is their worst nightmare. Phoenix ranks as the 11th largest television market in the country, while Milwaukee ranks 37th. While they may say that this is exactly what they are looking for with league-wide parity, they know that the ratings will take a significant dip without a team in a top media market participating or one of the older, more established faces of the league competing.
If the Hawks or Clippers come out on top, the NBA will be in a slightly better position, as Atlanta ranks seventh and Los Angeles comes in at second overall in market size.
However, true fans of the game of basketball do not need to worry about the league’s ratings. They should rejoice at the opportunity to see the next generation of young NBA stars take over, whether that be Antetokounmpo (26) and the Bucks, Devin Booker (24) and the Suns, or Trae Young (22) and the Hawks.
Regardless of who advances, fans will be able to sit back and enjoy something genuinely new for the first time in 30 years.
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