Please tell me there's a pill for this...

I continue to suffer from this sickness. It makes me feel terrible, definitely not like my normal self. I like to view myself as more than a casual fan of basketball. Sometimes I like to say I'm a connoisseur of the game, but not too much, because connoisseur is hard to spell and I have to look it up every time. Anyways, its the playoffs, and I should really be glued to my television watching every single game and following every plot line and story angle I can. I should be directing conversation about everything from Craig Seger's outfit to the always comical sideline reporting. About half the time, I have been.



None of this occurs when the Eastern Conference Playoffs are happening. I'm not here to be another guy talking about how the East sucks, I'm here to seek help. I've really honestly been trying to care about these games and I can't. Anyone know a good faith healer?



We all know there's no sexy juggernaughts out East (sorry Detroit). Even worse, the crowds seem less lively, as do the players. There is a lot of things in the East that should make things interesting. The analysts say Detroit is focused "like they were when the won it all." Sweet! Remember how ridiculously well Jason Kidd was playing? Awesome! How bout those interesting Raptors in the playoffs? Yay! Still nothing.



Its been like my brain is trying to convince my heart that this really is something I want to see. Its not just me, NBA.com's narrative recap of a Cav's semi-finals game featured a few quotes from LeBron, about what he thought of the Diaw/Amare suspensions. Ouch. A game not even interesting enough to dominate its own recap.



Speaking of, remember how captivating LeBron was in the 2006 playoffs? The dishing, the jumper, those awe-inspiring runaway freight train drives to the bucket (I think I stole that description from Bill Simmons). Ah, precious memories. For whatever reason (to me it looked like he was just a little flat all year), this was the first season he wasn't must see TV. I'm not a LeBron hater, those are already out in full force (King James is gonna have it rough for a while after tonight). I do know that if he really wants to be a global icon, he should probably look like he cares out there.



Maybe the problem is me, I could have gotten so swept away by all the basketball deliciousness of the West that the East seems pretty vanilla. I've said before that if a freak tsunami happened in the Great Lakes that ended up swallowing the Palace at Auburn Hills, I probably wouldn't notice. I have been interested in one Pistons game for a period of a few minutes because Rasheed Wallace was having an emotional outburst. This was more for nostalgia reasons, I started musing over the good old days when he threw a towel in Arvydas Sabonis's (who by the way, I want to start calling "stArvydas Sabonis") face. Oh the pain.

Unless something truly crazy happens, this will probably be my last blog entry about the Eastern Conference Playoffs. I just can't do it. I have spent more time researching Yi Jianliang than watching the 2007 Eastern Conference Playoffs. There is no end to this downward spiral.