Over-Heated

The Miami Heat have won the National Basketball Associations (NBA) title for the second straight year … see: AP Story.  I haven’t been interested nor watched the seven games that it took, but have been enjoying the over-heated sports theater surrounding this series.  Clearly, the public has been caught up in the drama of the tense back and forth between Miami and the San Antonio Spurs and the TV stations and team owners have hit the jackpot with advertising, attendance, and sports paraphernalia revenues.  It’s capitalism at its very best.

But is it legitimate?  Clearly LaBron James is the dominant and determinant player and, I believe, could have, if he really wanted, caused the Heat to sweep the series in four.  But why try too hard when there is so much lucre to be gained from a seven-game series?  I predicted that this series would take seven games just as I predicted that Miami would win game seven.  This is reminiscence of the baseball World Series sham that developed during the early part of the twentieth century.  Basically, the players then were colluding and purposely extending the World Series to fatten their paychecks.  The baseball leagues and fans eventually caught on and, to cure things, players were only paid for the first four games … see: Wiki Answers.

Perhaps the equivalent will now happen in the NBA?  But I kind of doubt it …