Wilbon Adds to Our Sense of Giddiness, Optimism Heading Into ‘08-‘09 Season

I don’t think people hate the NBA the way they did, say, 8-10 years ago. But there’s certainly a sense -- even among some of us here at TSB -- that only the playoffs matter, and that this league is always one scandal away from turning into hockey. This despite the fact that a huge scandal barely made a dent in the league’s overall credibility. Donaghy sucked, but has become a punchline, not a mark of shame.↵
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↵Coming into 2008-09, though, it looks like even the proverbial naysayers might change their tune. Today in The Washington Post, Wilbon -- who is prone to long columns chastising a league he clearly loves -- sounds like a proud father when he describes the NBA’s current high-value status:↵↵⇥The 2008-09 season begins with an infinitely brighter mood. It would be difficult for the NBA to be better positioned to start a season than it is tonight. Much of the credit for that goes to the members of the U.S. Olympic team, who endeared themselves to the American basketball public by winning the gold medal and behaving like ambassadors for the sport. Beyond that, the league has its best stable of stars, particularly those 25 and younger, since the early 1990s ... Probably the NBA is in better shape than at any time since Michael Jordan’s last season in Chicago, 1998, yet it isn’t utterly dependent on any one player.↵↵

That’s a patched-together quote because the entire column is flat-out enthusiasm, save for one line where Wilbon notes that “it’s hardly like the 1960s or 1980s when the Celtics and Lakers seemed to have insurmountable advantages over the rest of the league in personnel and coaching.” I’d guess, though that isn’t a criticism. Heck, it might even be a good thing, in a sport that’s never really embraced the concept of parity, unless you’re talking about the race to the bottom that the Eastern Conference has been at various times.↵
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↵All in all, it’s good to see an old NBA partisan so ardently on board. It’s rough enough trying to defend this league to people who only believe in football; when the likes of Wilbon come down hard on it, a blind zealot like me simply has too much on his plate. I know that Wilbon’s one of the guys who means well, who applies tough love when he criticizes the Association. But he doesn’t mince words, and to see him fly so far in the opposite direction ... well, it’s just another reason to feel buoyed by all the possibilities 2008-09 has to offer.↵