Written by Zach Harper | 30 March 2009

LeBron James' 50-point, near triple-double means nothing. Kobe Bryant's 61 points means nothing. Dwyane Wade's 33-point per game month of March with over eight assits and 50% shooting means nothing this year. In fact, pretty much every number that has been posted this season means absolutely nothing in this regular season.

The most important number in the NBA this year has been 50 -- 50 wins to be specific.

Over the past two years, the dominance of the Western Conference over the East has catapulted the expectations of what it takes to make the playoffs into an unreal and absurd territory. There was a time when winning 50% of your games was good enough to fight for a playoff spot. 45 wins would all but guarantee you winning the eighth seed. But now, it takes damn near 50 wins to guarantee you a spot in the second season and a chance to be a ratings catalyst like the 2007 Golden State Warriors.

When the Phoenix Suns lost to the Sacramento Kings on the road Sunday evening, the Dallas Mavericks almost completely locked up the final spot in the Western Conference playoff scenario.

The Suns had a chance to take advantage of the Cleveland Cavaliers blowing out the Dallas Mavericks in a huge second half run but instead dropped a very winnable road game to one of the worst teams this league has seen in years. The Kings too advantage of the opportunity to play season spoiler and the Suns failed to seize the chance to move within 2.5 games of the eighth seed in the West.

I'm not a Suns fan by any means but after being a Steve Nash fan ever since he was a Dallas Maverick, leading his inferior but growing team to their first playoff berth in years, I really wanted to see him in the post-season, especially this year. And that wanting of Nash in the playoffs was driven even deeper into my list of needs for this post-season when we had Ben York from Deep Purple on our podcast . Ben stated that if the Suns didn't make the playoffs, he was afraid that it could be a reason to blow up the Suns and possibly Nash leaving for another team. And I think that would be a terrible thing. Nash has been a rejuvenating and community factor for the city of Phoenix and their basketball culture and the thought of him leaving this franchise because they only win 48 or 49 games in a season is kind of depressing.

Also, we're going to miss out on his great post-season exploits. I don't think a lot of people have realized this year but Steve Nash is one of the greatest shooters of all time and he's one of the best clutch performers of the past decade. His uncanny ability to shoot from anywhere at any time is something that makes anything possible in the post-season if he can keep his team within striking distance. And now that the Suns have fallen 3.5 games back with eight to play, it's looking like we'll be missing Steve Nash in the post-season for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.

Personally, I don't want to see Jason Kidd missing jumpers and relying on Jose Barea to be a factor when we have Steve Nash in the lottery. In fact, there are a lot of things that I don't want to see in this post-season. Let me share some of the list with you and you can let me know which ones you agree and disagree with. And if you have any of your own, feel free to post them in the comments section or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

What We Don't Want to See in the Playoffs:

1. I don't want to see THIS Dallas Mavericks team in the post-season. It seems like they haven't won a game against the Lakers since the series in 1984 in which Derek Harper proved that he was given a passing grade in math class instead of earning it.




Now, they're going to win this eighth seed (most likely) and completely Oops I Crapped My Pants against the Lakers in round one. The Lakers absolutely own them and the Mavericks are so mentally weak that I'd be shocked if they could muster up a single 48-minute game performance against the best in the West to avoid a sweep. Mr. Miyagi eventually taught Daniel to sweep the leg. The Lakers will easily sweep the leg and put them in a body bag.




2. We don't want to see the Detroit Pistons pull a New York Mets Willie Mays. Willie Mays was one of the greatest players if not THE greatest player of all time in Major League Baseball. He changed the game and defied the odds on many levels and tasted incredible success because of it. He's so great that passing him is now considered a milestone marker for greatness in the history of professional baseball. Well, the Detroit Pistons have had a similar run during this decade. They became a staple of hard-nosed, defensive basketball while the league was adjusting the rules for more scoring and higher ratings. The Pistons decided to do the opposite and build something reminiscent of the tough teams they employed in the late 80s and early 90s. Now, after trading away Chauncey Billups and trying to put themselves in a position to be a player in the next two off-seasons, this Pistons team sure seems over the hill, under talented, and unable to do what they used to do that translated into hard to match stats and even harder to match success. It's a safe bet that this Pistons team will not extend their streak to seven straight conference finals appearances. Not this team that may make the playoffs with a losing record. We don't want to see this franchise get bounced in the first round.

3. We don't want to see the Atlanta Hawks taste first round success for the first time since the lockout shortened season. No offense to the Hawks and especially no offense to our friend at Peach Tree Hoops but nobody wants the Hawks to win in the first round and neither should you. The post-season is all about legendary performances that are fueled by legendary match-ups. And we all want to see the Heat get past the first round to set up a showdown between Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. LeBron and Dwyane are having two of the most statistically absurd seasons of NBA history. They are each arguably the best player in this league and will make a case over the next decade that they were the best player of their generation. And the fact that we're four wins in the first round away from seeing them go head to head in a playoff series after such an amazing season from both players is as expected and wanted by fans as Jeopardy calling for Gloria today. We can feel it.

So I'm asking the Hawks nicely to just sit this one out. You have the better team and your own terrific player in Joe Johnson. You have a nice young front court that GMs are enviable of and who will fill up fantasy basketball rosters for years to come. But we don't want you in the second round. We want a potentially legendary match-up. We want Wade versus LeBron.

4. We also don't want Orlando to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Admit it. Even though we all love the athleticism of Dwight Howard and the highlights that he gives us every night, nobody wants to see him square off against LeBron (assuming he wins the aformentioned, potential showdown with Dwyane Wade) for a chance to go to the Finals -- at least not this year. We want the Celtics fighting against the Cavs. We want LeBron to have to excercise the demons of last year's Game 7 in which his incredible performance just wasn't enough. Jordan had to make it past the Pistons before he could taste the success of being a champion. And we want a similar path for LeBron. It's far more romantic as a sports fan to see someone overcome a team that previously beat him. We don't get that angle or that story with LBJ against Dwight Howard. We may get it someday but that day isn't coming this May/June.

5. We don't want to really see Stuart Scott, Jon Barry, Jalen Rose, and Michael Wilbon breaking down the NBA Finals for us. And this has nothing to do with the internet-fueled hatred of ESPN. This has everything to do with how this sport is covered and broken down at an analytical level. The guys at TNT simply breakdown and preview this game better than any other crew in the world of media and entertainment. We don't want to see Jalen Rose talking out of the side of his mouth like Drew Barrymore, we don't want to wonder which Barry brother is the most hated by his famous dad, we don't want to listen to Wilbon speak in a calculated manner that gives himself an out when he predicts something incorrectly, and we don't want to be inundated with catch phrases and awkward highlight calls that we've all heard a thousand times while we're trying to figure out what's up with Stu Scott's eye.

We'd love to see ABC do the right thing and throw EJ, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley the money to host the series. It doesn't even have to be on TNT. Just leave a constant reminder that the Closer is the number one show that nobody has ever seen and put the games on ABC. It would be the most enjoyable way to have the game presented to us, the viewing audience. We don't want Stu Scott trying to prove that he's cool and has memorized every crappy phrase that he heard on the radio or looked up on Urban Dictionary. We want basketball coverage from the best in the business. And of course, we'd like the post-game to include some kind of variety show from Gary Payton and Chris Webber.

6. And finally (for now), we don't want to see the Celtics get to the NBA Finals. Personally, I do because of my obsession with Kevin Garnett. But as a whole, we don't want to see the Celtics get to the Finals if the Lakers get there. The basketball historian in me would argue that this match-up would be the most intriguing and interesting. But the majority of us would like to see the Cavs and Lakers throw down like Charlie Murphy's crew going against Prince and The Revolution. In the same way that we want to see Dwyane versus LeBron, we want to see Kobe versus LeBron even more. We want the best player in the NBA settled the same way that we wanted it settled between Russell versus Wilt, Magic versus Bird, Magic versus Jordan, and Isiah Thomas versus Anucha Browne Sanders.

It would give us the two most compelte teams going against each other. It would give us the top two player acquisitions of the last two years (Pau Gasol and Mo Williams) trying to help their star hoist a trophy. It would give us two of the most hated and women-obsessed white players of the past few seasons (Wally Szczerbiak and Luke Walton). It would give us two of the most hilarious guards of all-time facing off against each other.






But most of all we want to see Kobe Bryant versus LeBron James for the title of best in the NBA. The two of them against each other in the NBA Finals would settle the debate for the next year. It would give LeBron that much anticipated first title. It would give Kobe that much needed first title since Shaq left. It would give a boost to both players legacy. And it would be the best individual talent going against each other in an NBA Finals series since Jordan took on Magic. It would be our modern day Jordan versus Magic.

It would be what we all WANT to see in this year's playoffs.

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