It has really come to me that this year the NBA has been better than the NCAA basketball season for the first time since probably the last Michael Jordan title year.

Several factors have led to this IMO

1. Garnett to Boston followed by Ray Allen moved a little more balance to a boring, weak Eastern Conference. While the West is still a much stronger conference top to bottom, having 3-4 teams in the East that consistently play to the level of the West has been a big step. I don't doubt that bringing a strong team back to a huge sports city in Boston hasn't also helped the league out.

2. Blockbuster trades in the West. Kobe has received help in the West from Gasol. As one of the most popular players and teams, Kobe and the Lakers have reemerged in the West. Shaq moving to the Suns (even though it hasn't gone great, we'll see come playoffs), Chris Paul and the Hornets, a strong Spurs team, the Rockets and the 22 game win streak, the postseason battle between several good teams have really made this year actually fun to watch.

3. In the East, the unbelievably sick year Lebron has been having on top of an exciting playoff picture with Cavs-Celts, Magic-Pistons appearing to be meeting up in round 2 of the playoffs looks great. Even though the Cavs embarrassed the East last year in the finals, I get the sense we may finally be in for another special finals with the East champ coming out much more battle tested than last year.

4. The West playoff matchups appear sick in anyway you organize them.

On top of that, the NCAA has just not had the allure of years past. There aren't as many big names as there used to be and a lot of this is probably attributed to great players moving up to the NBA too quickly. This may all change with a great tournament, but judging by the regular season and conference tournaments, I don't anticipate there being much to get excited about.

^^^^^^

NBA pwns

^^^^

if you actually like the sport of basketball the NBA always has beenand always will be better. there is so much amazing talent, and theteam play and offense has improved tremendously the last few years.

if you just want manufactured excitement obviously the ncaa tournamentdelivers since it's single-elimination. but the regular season ismeaningless, only the small conference tournaments matter, and thetournament is only 63 games played on 10 days.

and, of course, the nba has ginobili.

The NBA still sucks imo...

i agree that it has definitely gotten better.. hopefully the playoffs will be good and these teams can keep key components of their teams in the off season. 1 great year isn't enough to sway my opinion. hopefully it can continue though.

Yeah, the thing is, if gambling didn't exist, NBA would probably be my favorite. I always say it's my 3rd favorite behind NFL and college basketball, but so much of the entertainment of those sports is like fantasy football, NFL pools, tourney brackets, etc. I never bet on the NBA, I just enjoy the games. From a pure sitting and watching/enjoying a game standpoint, the NBA is probably #1 for me, if you took gambling out of the equation. Probably. I'm still not sure it would top the NFL.

bkice, you joke

NCAA is SO far better than NBA i am certain you're leveling here

yes NBA may be better than IT has been in many years, but is still mainly comprised of a bunch of lazy spoiled jokes

not only do u suck at giving insurance advice(about to call those idiots now) but u have horrid taste in bball

Have any of you haters watched a Suns/Warriors game lately?

The top 8 teams in the West are closer than Detroit is to Boston.....WOW

NCAA>NBA

<table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#eeeedd"><td><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"> </td><td>Re(2): The Emergence of the NBA over the NCAA
by tmac456 on 3/20/2008 13:43 </td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><nobr> </nobr> </td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td colspan="2"><table celspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="2"><tbody><tr><td><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#eeeedd"><td><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"> </td><td>Re(2): The Emergence of the NBA over the NCAA
by dandickau on 3/20/2008 12:30 </td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><nobr> </nobr> </td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td colspan="2"><table celspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="2"><tbody><tr><td>Have any of you haters watched a Suns/Warriors game lately?</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
you mean those two teams that don't play a lick of defense?

much like almost every team in the nba</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

I think he is talking about the Warriors that are 2nd in the league in steals per game and 1st in the league in turnovers forced per game. Yes they have an undersized 2 in Monta Ellis and a small front court which creates a lot of mismatches, but they are dealing with it because of the offensive explosiveness of their players.

What is the NBA? That is the place where high school ballers go and skip the NCAA. Well players like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and LeBron James did.

So by this reasoning, NBA > NCAA