NBA vs. NHL

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

We have our competing playoff threads, after all. 

Let's settle this.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I was pleasantly surprised to see NHL demolish NBA on the Yik Yak battle here. Of course hockey playoffs. Not only is the sport much better, but the NBA eastern conference is not even entertaining for 2 full rounds whereas the NHL has constant surprises around every corner. (Even in the dominant NBA west, 1 upset seems like the expectation...)

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

NHL by far

The NBA is unwatchable

[The Dowager Mod]

NHL by far

The NBA is unwatchable

[King]

Both are committing the heinous crimes of winter sport playoffs that last until the summer, 7 game series that really should only be 3 games, and teams with losing records consistently getting wild card spots.

[Hatman 🍁]

NHL obviously. Not surprising that the NHL is winning given how White this forum is though!

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

NHL obviously. Not surprising that the NHL is winning given how White this forum is though!

Indeed.  The ability for the white to afford hockey gear/tickets/etc. and all that is certainly part of our privilege.  That doesn't take away from the beauty of the game, though, and hockey gear would be government subsidized in any civilized society.  

[DemPGH]

NHL for sure. I don't think there's anything in sports quite as tense as your team up 1-2, the team that's down is furiously trying to get that goal or two, and the goalie is trying to hold 'em off. Good goalie play is truly fun to watch.

My sport is football, though, but between basketball and hockey, hockey wins easily.

[Boris]

With the exception of the time representing Michael Jordan's second threepeat, I've always preferred the NHL to the NBA.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Obviously the NBA is better.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

NBA like a majority of Americans

[Joe Biden 2020]

NBA without a doubt.  If only we could do away with LeBron James, though...

[Хahar 🤔]

This argument is always kind of dumb, and it can end up having pretty strong classist overtones. I won't make any value judgments because that's pointless. I closely follow the NBA and not the NHL for a few reasons, including that I grew up in a part of the world where it doesn't snow and that I was exposed to basketball (both as a player and a fan) at an early age and that I now attend a basketball school without an ice hockey team. Other people follow the NHL and not the NBA for analogous reasons, and that's good for them. I enjoy when the Sharks are good and it frustrates me that they're not good now and that management is dicking around with Joe Thornton, but it means much more to me that the Warriors are the best team in the NBA.

However, I have come to this thread because of King's comments:

Both are committing the heinous crimes of winter sport playoffs that last until the summer, 7 game series that really should only be 3 games, and teams with losing records consistently getting wild card spots.

Again, I won't comment about the NHL because I don't feel qualified. It's easy to make fun of the NBA playoffs for a whole host of reasons. I did it for a long time. As someone who is a baseball fan first and foremost I always look back with approval on the 1993 season, when San Francisco finished 103-59 but missed the postseason because Atlanta was 104-58. With that in mind, the NBA's system of letting more than half the teams in seems scandalously permissive.

However, I've come around to the NBA playoffs as something that works really well for basketball. One obvious complaint is the length, which obviously isn't ideal, but it's not like there's anything else going on in the early summer except baseball games that don't really mean a whole lot. I can forgive that.

As for the number of teams that get in, it gives opportunities for really good matchups. All eight teams in the Western Conference this year are both good and fun to watch; the worst team of the bunch is New Orleans, which has the man who will soon be the best player in the world. The Warriors have been a #6 seed the last two years, but they were certainly good enough to be competitive in the postseason, and it would have been a shame if they had been left out. The philosophy that basketball uses is that every team that might have a shot should get a chance to prove it in the playoffs, which isn't necessarily the same as other sports but has its own internal logic. If bad teams get in, they are quickly dispatched without any particular harm done; the flip side is that sometimes we get #1 Dallas getting bounced in the first round in 2007, which people who weren't even fans of either team still remember as among their favorite basketball memories of the last decade.

The broader point is that, unlike in other sports, the postseason in basketball is not just a proper but a necessary way of picking the best team. In fact, it's better than the regular season in terms of doing that. There aren't ever any mediocre, unsatisfying champions in basketball. When a higher-ranked team falls to a lower-ranked team, most of the time it's because the lower-ranked team was actually better. Miami with LeBron was always the best team in the Eastern Conference; they didn't always have the best regular-season record, but they always won the Eastern Conference in the playoffs. Long series are an important part of that, because a bad team can get lucky in a best-of-5 series, but that almost never happens in a best-of-7 series. Other sports' postseasons are meant to entertain, but the NBA postseason finds the best team.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Hockey is objectively more fun to watch. Although I'd rather watch a Warriors/Hawks finals than a Rangers/Blackhawks final. Yawn.

[Sedona]

I am pleasantly surprised to see a site with an American majority actually pick hockey over basketball.  The Nets are doing better than the Devils as off now, but I will always pick the NHL over the NBA.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The sport that doesn't take a half hour to play the last minute of a close game.  Basketball is a highlight reel, while ice hockey is a sport.  (I exaggerate somewhat, but still I can't see myself watching the NBA at all, tho some college BB if a school I root for is in the competition.)  Still, it does seem like many people prefer to watch a highlight reel they can stuff their faces in between bursts of activity.  In that regard the NBA is like the NFL, only more so.

[© tweed]

I don't know.  I care more about the individual fate of my favorite NHL team (Islanders) than I do my favorite NBA team (Clippers), though I more consistently follow the NBA.  if the Islanders and Rangers are eliminated I will not watch any of the NHL playoffs.  I'll end up watching (or at least half-watching -- makes no difference to Nielsen) the NBA playoffs almost without regard to which teams are playing, at least when it doesn't conflict with a Mets game.

though, I have to say, somewhat in contradiction to the above, MLB Network takes up most of my TV time.  it's a great station for a baseball geek.  for 6 months you are literally plugged in to the full slate of games being played.  it's like NFL RedZone, but over 180 days instead of 17.. I may well watch the final innings of a close A's/Mariners game instead of Game 4 of the Warriors/Rockets WCF.

[dead0man]

basketball is fun to play, but just brutal to watch 95% of the time.  Even close games are hard to watch, so much standing around at the end.  Hockey just goes.  and goes.  and goes.  30 second commercial, and going again.  You can't take your eyes off the ice in an overtime game in the playoffs and game 7 overtime situations is the best thing that happens in sport.

[WalterMitty]

Obviously the NBA is better.

[Dr. Cynic]

Pittsburgh has an NHL team and no NBA team, so NHL.

[Sopranos Republican]

The NHL by a mile. (Vermonter)

[Mr. Illini]

NHL by far

The NBA is unwatchable

[Kushahontas]

Obviously the NBA is better.

[SATW]

NHL.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

NHL.  College basketball is way better than the NBA.