A Loyal Fan's Nightmare

By Chris Glennon

The 2013 NBA Western Conference Finals will pit the Los Angeles Lakers (they will turn it around) against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The winner of that series will advance to face the 2013 Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat in the finals. 

Am I a psychic? 

I'd love to say I am, but I'm not. I'm simply a Golden State Warriors fan who isn't blinded by his loyalties. If you're a fan of any NBA team besides the three I've slated to go deep into the playoffs, you'd be silly to think that your favorite team has a good shot of raising a banner at the end of the year. 

This is why I cant stand the NBA: it's too predictable.

Since the 1979 NBA season, only nine teams have won a championship. That factors out to a new champion every three and a half years or so. 

If you look at same time frame for the MLB, 20 different teams won titles. Even the New York Yankees, baseball's "evil empire," only won four World Series championships during those 32 years. The Lakers won 10.

I'll concede that on a Monday night in January, the Warriors might be able to surprise one of the league's elite and steal a victory, but come playoff time in April, the elite teams will conquer. 

It didn't used to be this way. Take the 2007 Warriors for example. They faced the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs. The 8th-seeded Warriors beat the Mavs in six games backed by a loud and loyal fan base. The only other time an 8th seed came out on top against the top seed in a seven-game series was last year, but that happened in large part to an injury to perennial All-Star Derrick Rose. 

The league is very different today than it was in 2007, and the gap between the top teams is far greater than it used to be. A new age of "super teams" has been ushered in, and now it is not uncommon to see some of the league's brightest stars teaming up. While it's fun to watch them play together, the league lacks parity. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Call me bitter for being a lowly Warriors fan, but unless you're from L.A., South Beach, Oklahoma City or you're a frontrunner, you likely feel the same way I do. It's hard to go into a season knowing there is no realistic chance of your team winning a championship, something fans from other sports don't have to deal with.

I don't know that there is a solution to this problem, but I do know that if the class of the league continues to dominate, the lower market teams will have a hard time keeping fans, selling tickets, making money and ultimately staying afloat.

Chris Glennon is an undeclared sophomore and editor of the Sports section.