Everyone is talking about how exciting the first round of the NBA playoffs was, and rightly so. Five of the eight first-round series went the full seven games ”“ including both No. 1 vs. No. 8 matchups ”“ and eight games went to overtime.
But lost in the excitement is a refreshing revelation for the NBA: the first round showed that the league might finally be creating some parity.
Dictionary.com defines parity as “equality, as in amount, status or character.” Nine different champions in the last 30 years, out of 30 teams in the league, does not sound like parity.
That means a generation of fans for 21 NBA franchises have never seen their favorite team lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the end of the NBA Finals. Doing some quick math, that’s less than 33 percent of teams winning the title in the last three decades.
The NFL has been trumpeting parity in its league for years, and it’s not just blowing smoke. Sixteen different NFL franchises have won Super Bowl titles in the past 30 years ”“ or 50 percent of 32 teams ”“ and nine have won a title since the 2002 season.
Only four franchises have never appeared in one of the 48 Super Bowl games played; two of which have only been in the league for less than 20 years (Jacksonville entered the league in 1995, Houston in 2002), and the other two (Detroit, Cleveland) won NFL championships in the 1950s and ’60s before the Super Bowl was created.
And it’s not just the NFL that has more parity than the NBA. The National Hockey League has had 15 different championship winners ”“ again, 50 percent of its 30 teams ”“ since 1984, and that included a locked-out 2004-05 season where a champion wasn’t crowned.
Major League Baseball, surprisingly, has featured the most parity of any major American sports league over the last three decades. The league that has featured the New York Yankees winning 27 World Series ”“ and 11 more for the St. Louis Cardinals ”“ has crowned 19 different champions since 1984, and nine since 2001. Even relatively new franchises like the Miami (formerly Florida) Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks have won titles.
The NBA simply cannot compete with those numbers. Every year, only a handful of teams truly have a shot at winning the championship. But maybe this year, things are starting to change. The Miami Heat may very well win its third title in as many years, but the Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly the Seattle Supersonics) may win its first title since 1979. The Los Angeles Clippers and Indiana Pacers may win their first ever. Same too with the Brooklyn Nets, which features former Boston Celtic stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.
The NBA has staved off parity because the star players ”“ who make the league as popular as it is ”“ want to play in the biggest cities and for the most successful franchises. But thanks to social media and an expanding global society, a player can be marketable in any city. And thanks to smart, creative general managers in smaller markets, those teams are starting to compete against the big boys.
Parity may not be here in full for the NBA ”“ the Heat and San Antonio Spurs are good bets to win the championship again ”“ but it looks like it is coming. Teams that previously were longer-than-long shots are now knocking on the door. The number of different champions in the next 30 years of the NBA should dwarf the nine different champions of the past 30 years.
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Today’s editorial was written by Sports Writer Wil Kramlich on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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