Holt

I’m not going to hide my disdain for the NBA. As enthralling as I find uncontested dunks and an absolute absence of team defense, it’s not for me.

But really, why care about the NBA Finals when you have the Stanley Cup playoffs happening simultaneously?

Both sports have the golden standard of playoff formats — the seven-game series — but there is nothing better than a game seven overtime period in hockey. Hell, any NHL playoff game to go into OT is likely the best mixture of tenseness, excitement and edge-of-your-seat nerves you’ll get since you tried to come through on your promise to “go all the way” on Senior Prom night.

And while the only two watchable bouts in the NBA playoffs are the Lakers-Thunder and Blazers-Suns series, not only are we headed for some epic game sevens in the Montreal-Washington and Phoenix-Detroit series, but also the rest of the preceding games have been more than entertaining. Vancouver might have won 4-2 over the LA Kings, but those six games were some of the best of the postseason.

You want rivalries? If Alex the Great can knock off those pesky Habs in game seven, we can prepare lick our chops for a Capitals-Penguins series. What’s better than the league’s two best squaring off, with Washington hoping to avenge that semifinals loss from 2009? Even better, this time, it would be a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals on the line.

And face it; you know you would enjoy watching Ovechkin lay a hit on that Sidney Crosby diva like the one that blasted Jarom?r J?gr in the Olympics.

There’s no other sport where you’ll see a guy play with a ruptured spleen, a la Peter Forsberg in 2001. There’s no better trophy than Lord Stanley’s cup. So there’s no reason all your primetime sports viewing until mid-June should not revolve around the NHL playoff schedule.

Fiammetta

A Stan Van Gundy postgame press conference. A gem from a still-hopeful underdog along the lines of, “I don’t see no fat lady.” Ron Artest’s hair.

Holt, let me ask you — do the NHL Playoffs have any of that?

Yeah, I get it. There’s Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin and the Stanley Cup. ESPN even dusts off the one and only Barry Melrose for our viewing pleasure.

Still…the NHL Playoffs?

Forget about Michael Jordan’s push-off, pull-up jumper over Byron Russell in the 1998 Finals or Willis Reed’s Willis Reed moment or Derek Fisher’s heave with 0.4 seconds on the clock. Where else can you see piss-yellow hair with “defense” shaved into it in Japanese, Hebrew and Hindi? Does hockey give us quotes like that one above from Dallas Mavericks forward Shawn Marion?

And Van Gundy — king of the mock turtleneck and extra-large blazer, champion of the Ron Jeremy mustache — is the NBA’s equivalent of Chad Ochocinco. Put a camera or microphone on him, and you’re sure to be rewarded with something great.

Jokes aside, here’s my point. The NBA provides fans with great games and highlights just as any other postseason competition does, plus a little extra. I’ll even give you that Lord Stanley’s Mug makes the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy look like something someone’s younger brother fashioned out of Play-Doh.

However, the NBA Playoffs just has that x-factor, that it-factor, that whatever-factor. Whether its superstar charisma, press conference gems or just plain weird “what the…” moments, the NBA just stands a little taller than the NHL. I know we’re in the center of America’s hockey fan base right here in Wisconsin, but let’s be real — the NBA is where amazing happens. It might as well make that its playoff slogan or something.