LeBron James just seems to get better with age, the 32-year-old just steam rolled the Toronto Raptors with a 4 -0 series sweep. At this rate, it appears the Cavaliers will march right to the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year. Each year there is supposedly a new team in the Eastern Conference ready to dethrone LeBron from his top spot in the Eastern Conference. Repeatedly the supposed opposition fails to even put up a decent fight year in and year out. Teams are beginning to realize there is no stopping the freight train that is the Cleveland Cavaliers. As long as the Cavs have Lebron James they will surely be in the NBA Finals every single year.
There is not enough competition in the Eastern Conference and this has been the case for about the past decade. Each year the question is what Western Conference team will challenge Lebron this year. This isn’t a slight towards the Cavaliers as they can only play who’s on their schedule but the teams who this hurts the most is in fact the Western Conference teams. Teams in the West must make it past murders row of teams while LeBron has a cake walk each year. This is not meant to disregard what James has accomplished as he is undoubtedly the greatest player in the world. Instead this is intended to question the fairness of the playoff system.
Some may say that having a dynasty sweep through the playoffs every year is a good thing but I beg to differ. There is no reason NBA fans should know EXACTLY who will be in the Finals before the season even starts. It takes away the excitement from the fans. In sports the term “anything is possible” is often used regarding teams chance of winning a championship. Unfortunately, those words hold no legitimacy in the Eastern Conference.
This issue is something the NBA Competition Committee will surely have to look at this summer. Perhaps a system where the 16 teams with the best regular season records make the playoffs would provide better competition to the league. Something must change for the sake of NBA fans. We love Lebron and the Cavaliers but more competition can never hurt.
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