Suns Are First to Drop a Banner

By Craig Kwasniewski

Start the parade, roll out the champagne, call in sick and most importantly... DROP A BANNER!!!

The Suns are Pacific Division Champs!!!!!!!!!

(I feel that nine exclamation points is not enough. "!!!!!!" There you go!)

Three-Peat!!! Three-Peat!!! Three-Peat!!!

(Can't you feel the excitement?)

The Suns are the first NBA team to clinch a division title in a professional league where division titles mean absolutely bupkis. Oops my bad, it means that the Suns are guaranteed a top four seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. Other than that, fans get to enjoy another division title banner and a super duper tee-shirt for $25. Whoopdee freakin' doo!

All joking aside, it's quite impressive that they clinched the division with a month left in the regular season. It shows how good the Suns have been this year and how crappy the rest of their division is. But unless the Suns make it to the Finals, this Three-Peat is just a tad more memorable than the Sacramento Kings back-to-back Pacific Division titles a few years ago. Basically, absolutely nothing!

Can't we eliminate the damn divisions and just have the top eight teams in each conference make the playoffs? I know I've said this like a million times, but does anyone really care about the division champs?

All that being said, I found it very interesting to see the referees join in on the celebration.

Comments

[coach]

you cannot do that ? the raptors are about to win the atlantic division , their 1st nba title of any kind !
ooops . mayde not. there was the now cancelled naismith cup
between the 2 canadian teams before when the grizzlies still roamed the mountains of vancouver !.

[Ryan]

To put the true top 8 teams into the playoffs they'll all have to play each other the same amount of times. Right now division foes play something like four games, while they play everyone else a different number of times.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but until everyone plays each other the same amount then it'll have to be in the format it is now.

[coach]

you're right . but the teams don't clinch any division titles except the eastern conference crown, and then the nba crown if whoever comes out on top of the 8 teams . the acc needs a raptors banner to join the numerous maple leafs ones hanging there now !
it's like sanjaya being able to brag later on that he's one of the american idol finalists even though he is not the eventual winner ! go sanjaya go !

[Craig]

Atually teams play within their conference 4 times and out of conference 2 times. Division makes no difference... that's why it's so lame. If the NBA wants to promote divisional competition, then increase games from 4 to 6 each team.

[John R.]

Incorrect. Teams play out of division, but in conference, three OR four times. Do the math. (15 x 2 + 14 x 4 = 86) For example, the Lakers only play the Blazers three times this season. This is really good for the Lakers since the Blazers have owned them this year (and last).

[Craig]

Dammit John, now you gonna make me do math... dammit!

I have a few solutions and I'll put up a post tonight or tomorrow to explain them, I feel simply responding in the "comment" section will not give it justice.

Great point John!

[basketbawful]

The purpose of having divisions is to create divisional rivalries. In the early days of the NBA, there were two divisions: the East Division and the West Division. This is because the NBA was created by merging the Basketball Association of America with the National Basketball League. The BAA consisted of Western teams and the NBL consisted of mostly East Coast teams. Since the two leagues had been rivals, the two divisions provided a means of keeping that rivalry in tact (and the players back then took that rivalry *very* seriously).

So that initial divisional, uh, division simply continued and resulted in the divisions we have today. And let's face it, divisional rivalries make basketball exicting. Think Boston/Philly in the early 80s, Chicago/Detroit in the late 80s, and L.A./Sacramento a few years back.

The only problem is that, unless the teams within a division have similar records (and thus can compete for the divisional crown), there is no basis for a rivalry (since the division title is the sole carrot). The stars have to really align for two teams to compete for the title. And unless the teams stay good for an extended period of time, chances are there won't be a real, long-standing, heated rivalry.

There needs to be more incentive. Maybe, as you suggest, the teams should play divisional opponents more times than same-conference opponents. Maybe there should be a divisional playoff to decide who gets into the playoffs (like a pre-playoff playoffs), seeded by division record. They could be mini-series, like best of one followed by best of three. They'd probably have to shorten the season, but I'd be cool with that.

Another problem is that we live in a watered-down, PC age where you have to respect your opponent and not say anything too negative. Remember when Dr. J and Larry Bird fought? Now *that* was a rivalry. Good times...