Now that the NBA semifinals are underway, I’m wondering more and more: where are the big markets?

A lot of teams that used to be staples of the NBA playoffs are now at the bottom of the ocean with cement shoes on. Teams like Los Angeles and New York

are now in the lottery because of slight foul-ups in management during the off-season.
The Lakers obviously lost Shaquille O’Neal. This caused the city of L.A. to focus on other sports endeavors, like stealing a baseball team from Anaheim when they already had the Dodgers. They have also decided to set out plans for a new football stadium that would possibly attract an expansion franchise, or a team wanting to relocate to another locale.

For a team like the New York Knicks, it’s a little different. they brought in Isaiah Thomas as a popular GM but not all former players end up being great GMs. He made some trades last season to bring the fun back to Knicks basketball, like acquiring Stephon Marbury from the Phoenix Suns, who by the way are sitting pretty in the NBA semifinals. Interesting. But the excitement that Marbury and the Knicks created at the end of last season ended up being a fluke. So, like L.A. fans, the New York fans decided to focus on other sports. Both New York baseball teams have high hopes this year with the Yankees acquiring Randy Johnson and the Mets getting Carlos Beltran. It doesn’t stop there for New York sports fans; they have just set out plans for a new stadium much like the city of L.A. But the difference between the two cities is that New York has the Jets already so it makes the transition from their old stadium that they share with the underachieving Giants.

Since neither of the major national hotbeds are featured in this year’s playoffs, the coverage has been lacking in those major markets. This then affects the total coverage of the playoffs, when the two major news markets aren’t giving the playoffs the coverage it deserves. It hinders some of the extravagant things that any type of sports playoff brings the public. So I say to the GMs’ of those respective franchises need to take notice and give sports nation a boost and put some money out there and let us the fan enjoy for what it is.