Why inequality in the NBA makes me happy

Some chumps are still hanging on to the tired proclamation that the NBA is boring, but whether you realize it or not, we're in the midst of perhaps the most exciting NBA season ever. And it's all thanks to inequality.

There has been a recent trend in sports to rate a league on its level of parity, which is good as far as making sure that small market teams have an opportunity to compete with the big dogs. But in any given season, I don't want to watch a league where every team has a good shot of winning on any given night.

When teams are equal (and I'm specifically talking about basketball now) it means that the great players are evenly dispursed, but it also means that the bad players are evenly dispursed. So you may get to see a lot more close games, but those close games will involve one or two star players on each team trying to make up for the ineptitude of the Tractor Traylors and Eric Snows they are teamed up with.

But thanks to a flurry of midseason trades, all the Tractor Traylors and Eric Snows are now playing together on teams that we can ignore, and all the stars are playing together on teams that are playing at the highest level.

I really hope that this trend continues, where struggling teams give up their good players for future picks and undeveloped talent, while contending teams mortgage their future to make a run. It works in baseball to an extent, but would be even better in basketball because there are no Yankees or Red Sox that can afford to grab all the big names year after year without having to pay for it in future seasons, and teams can climb the ranks in the NBA a lot quicker than they can in MLB. This means that if you don't win when you have a chance, there's a damn good chance you won't win at all.

That's what makes this NBA season (and at least the next couple seasons) so damn intriguing. Most of the contending teams are facing closing windows, producing a sense of urgency to win now. The Pistons' and Spurs' core players have been around for an eternity, and they can only hold together for so long before age starts to set in. The Celtics' new Big Three have only a few years of elite play left in them. T-Mac and the Rockets are running out of time to win a playoff series. AI was willing to give up the spotlight because he realized his opporunities are running out. And of course, you have the Suns and Mavs who pretty blatantly traded their future for former superstars that are running on fumes.

Barring some ingenious front office moves, all of these teams have three years or less to win a championship, and Vinnie can check my math, but I'm pretty sure seven teams can't all win rings in three years. And it's probably that not even three of these teams will win, because of the younger teams like the Lakers, Hornets and Jazz.

One of the big knocks against the NBA is that there is not enough passion compared to NCAA hoops. But when you combine tons of talent with tons of desperation, you can bet your ass that you're going to see some emotion and passion...and with a lot more talent than college.

This is just one of the reasons I am watching at least one NBA game a night. There's the whole situation with nine elite teams in the West fighting for eight playoff spots. There's the absence of any scandals. There's my opinion that in Kobe and LeBron, we are watching the two greatest players to play the game ever. There's the championship promises from my favorite player ever. But I'll spare you any further raving about how great the NBA is right now. The only thing that could make it any better would be if they brought back the 'NBA on NBC' theme music.