Faded Memories of the NBA Playoffs

There was a time that I paid attention to the NBA playoffs. It was my thing during the spring and early summer that I would follow the playoffs. The earliest memory was the 1976 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns. I can still hear the excitement in Brent Musberger’s voice when Game 5 went into triple overtime. The next season we moved to the Atlanta area and I started following the Hawks. The Hawks were actually good during those years and took the Washington Bullets to the limit in the 1979 playoffs losing in Game 7.

The Hawks, like most Atlanta teams, were always a disappointment. I think the final straw for me was in the 1988 playoffs in the Eastern Conference semifinals when they had a 3-2 series lead on Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics coming back home to play game six with a chance to close out the series. They choked and then lost game seven in Boston. I never recovered from that loss and my interest in the Hawks faded just as my interest in the Atlanta Falcons did when they lost to the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Although my interest left with the Hawks after the 1988 playoffs, I still remained interested in the NBA playoffs without a favorite team. I loved watching the Celtics-Lakers rivalry and the Chicago Bulls championship runs. The last time I recall following the NBA playoffs was after the 1992 season when Chicago beat the Portland Trailblazers for the title.

I don’t really know why I lost interest in the playoffs. It’s just never been the same. Although I would often watch a game or two in the finals, I haven’t been engaged in the playoff runs. I still remember growing up and listening to the playoff games on the radio at night when I had to go to bed. All I had was a small transistor radio and hoping I could get a string signal to listen to a game. There were no smartphones, Internet or the variety of media choices we have today. Many games would still be played after my bedtime so my only option was listening to them on the radio.

I guess the reason I lost interest in the NBA playoffs is that I don’t have a team I follow. I’m not sure I can remedy that. I currently live near Nashville and there is little chance that the city will ever have an NBA team. There isn’t even any talk of Nashville getting an NBA franchise. The most recent talk is for a Major League Baseball team. Tennessee has the Memphis Grizzlies but I’m just not interested in them either. I’m certainly not going back to following the Hawks either.

It appears that those years of following the NBA playoffs are behind me. I have other things which occupy my time now. Instead of the NBA, I have probably replaced it with the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It’s also nice weather so there’s really no need to waste the nice days by staying inside to watch sports.