End of Discussion: Why the NHL Playoffs Are Better Than the NBA Playoffs

Heresy?!?

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Image via Complex Original
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Hello Canada! No, really, hello Canada, because we might get deported for arguing that the NHL Playoffs are better than our beloved NBA postseason. But that's what we're going to try to do.

Don't get it twisted; we love the NBA. (Like, duh.) We really, really love the NBA Playoffs. But around the time the Pacers are trouncing the Superman-less Magic by 20 in the third quarter, or when Tim Duncan is bankshotting the Jazz to death, or, worse yet, when Rick Carlisle is calling his 15th timeout of the final 30 seconds to devise a Durantula-stopper, we find ourselves drifting over to the bass-fishing channel to check out hockey. So you can't always see the puck, and 95% of the dudes look like either frat boys who'd want to beat you up, or Brooklyn hipsters you'd like to beat up (but at least there's a chance you'll see someone else kick their ass): There's something undeniably cool about a sport this fast and this mean, and that gets its overtime so right. And we thought: Are the NHL Playoffs actually better than the NBA Playoffs?

We had Los Angeles Newspaper Group hockey scribe Andrew Knoll compare the two leagues' postseasons on a variety of criteria. If you read the headline of this piece, you'll know the conclusion he came to. Read on to learn why the NHL Playoffs are better than the NBA Playoffs.

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The Trophy

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There is no more revered piece of sports tradition. Not the Masters’ green jacket, not the Lombardi Trophy, not the milk at the Indy 500, not whatever corporate-sponsored crystal goes to the NCAA football champion, and damn sure not the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

The Stanley Cup has taken on a life of its own. It is, in fact, itself a celebrity. It tours the world as adoring fans seek to get a glimpse, a picture, or, the one thing no hockey player would dare attempt until he earned the right, a caress and a kiss of the sweetest prize on earth.

It’s a living, breathing archive of hockey greatness, with 60 seasons of winners’ names etched onto it as a glorious memorial to excellence. The NBA’s trophy is a gold ball that you can’t even drink beer out of.

Advantage: NHL

NHL: 1 | NBA: 0

Diversity

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While the nuances of nationality, regions, and so forth might point to the NHL's diversity, most people see two groups on the ice: white guys and white guys with beards.

Meanwhile, basketball has been a city game since shortly after its inception. Once dominated by Jews and immigrants, it gave away to Black Fives like the Harlem Globetrotters and, not too long after, black superstars like Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. The NBA had the first black head coach, the first black general manager, the first black owner and the first black majority owner. Its sidelines have long had the most diverse presence, with black coaches sometimes accounting for more than a third of the league's head men.

Under David Stern's leadership and the 1992 Dream Team's example, the game expanded globally at a much higher rate. Today, the game is represented by players from all six inhabited continents with participation expanding literally all over the world. Given the limited cost of courts, equipment and participation, the game could one day rival soccer in terms of ubiquity and popularity. In the NHL, diversity has grown as the sport has expanded throughout Europe and, significantly, hockey-playing countries and regions have grown more diverse. The NHL has also been active in constructing facilities and creating instructional programs in urban areas. The day is very near that, on average, there will be a black player on every professional team.

In addition to the increased number of black players, their roles and origins have also varied more widely. Fan favorites like P.K. Subban, Wayne Simmonds, and Evander Kane lead a new generation of black NHL'ers. Subban also has two younger brothers, goalie Malcolm who projects as a first-round pick, and defenseman Jordan, who may be the most talented of the trio. Still, the NHL has a long way to go until it achieves the multicultural reach of the NBA, and that's a significant hindrance to its ultimate appeal.

Advantage: NBA

NHL: 1 | NBA: 1

Upsets

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Other than sucking a few more bucks out of their fans’ wallets, the participation of lower seeds in the NBA Playoffs serves almost no purpose. The league had four teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs until 1975 when the pool expanded, and in 37 years that move has yet to be validated.

An eighth-seeded team has beaten a top-seeded team just four times in NBA history, with zero teams accomplishing the feat between 1984 and 1994. Since 1979 when the NHL adopted an eight-team format, ten bottom seeds have upended top teams and seven seeds.

The 1999 Knicks are the only eighth seed to reach the Finals and they did so in a lockout-shortened season. A seventh seed has never made it. In the NHL, in the past ten seasons alone, the 2003 Ducks, 2006 Oilers, and 2010 Flyers have all reached the Finals as either the eighth or seventh seed. The 2004 Flames were a six seed that beat three division champions en route to a conference championship.

This year, the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Kings shocked the first-seeded Vancouver Canucks, the team with the best overall record in hockey in the regular season, and the runner-up for last year's Stanley Cup. Now, the Kings are well on their way to knocking off the second-seeded Blues after they stole a 2-0 lead in St. Louis. If your team makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs, literally anything can happen.

Advantage: NHL

NHL: 2 | NBA: 1

Dynasties

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The NHL has had its share of great ones—the Canadiens, Oilers, Islanders and the like—and as recently as the 2000s clubs like New Jersey, Colorado and Detroit were regulars in the Finals. But the NBA’s great teams have a way of grabbing the league by the neck and not letting go.

Bill Russell’s Celtics won 11 titles in 13 years, George Mikan’s Lakers captured five straight, Michael Jordan’s Bulls dominated, triumphing six times in eight years, the Showtime Lakers won five championships and nine conference crowns in Magic Johnson’s career and a host of back-to-back and even back-to-back-to-back winners have dominated the NBA. In an era of parity in other sports, the dynasty remains a distinct possibility in the NBA. Since 2000, the Lakers had a repeat and a threepeat, the Spurs won three more titles and clubs like the Pistons and Celtics won a championship on either side of a Finals appearance. In that same span, the NHL hasn't had a back-to-back champion, and only two clubs (the Devils and Red Wings) have won multiple titles.

If you like sustained dominance and the same clubs in it every year, the NBA might be for you.

Advantage: NBA

NHL: 2 | NBA: 2

Overtime

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Last year we saw the eighth seed Memphis Grizzlies shock the world by upsetting the San Antonio Spurs in the first round and taking the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games in the conference semis. They had multiple overtime games in their run, including a triple OT thriller that hearkened back to one of the greatest NBA Playoffs games ever played, a three-overtime adventure in the 1976 NBA Finals between the Celtics and Suns.

But NBA overtimes are a mere five minutes long and often marred by foul trouble or exhaustion among key players. By contrast, NHL overtimes are sudden death but played for full, 20-minute periods, meaning teams can play two and even three games in the same night. In 2000, the Flyers’ Keith Primeau ended a quintuple OT marathon against Pittsburgh, the longest game since a 1936 bout in which the Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons in six overtimes, 3:30 shy of a third complete game.

In round one this year alone, there were 16 overtime games including one series that went to five straight overtime games. On one night, three out of four games went to OT. Wednesday, the Rangers needed almost a full second game to top the Capitals in triple overtime after more missed scoring chances than an entire soccer season. The drama and sheer volume of play makes hockey a much better bang for your puck.

Advantage: NHL

NHL: 3 | NBA: 2

Superstars

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Despite the awesome, definitive nicknames like “The Great One” and “Mr. Hockey,” basketball actually has the edge here. In a regulation game, an NHL forward might play 25 minutes, a defenseman somewhere north of 30 and a goalie might make 50-plus saves. But an NBA star, aided by extended TV timeouts, can readily play 40 or more minutes in an NBA playoff game. Furthermore, the structure of the game, the nature of alternating possessions and the level of impact one player can have on a game make NBA stars the biggest stars in sport. Rivaled perhaps only be a red-hot goaltender, a dominant post player or explosive perimeter scorer can dominate a game, a series and even a season.

Hockey’s constant shift changes (substitutions) can make it difficult for a casual fan to even follow exactly who is on the ice for their club and the increasingly football-like equipment makes it tough to recognize players without seeing their number. Meanwhile, NBA stars are front and center, scoring buckets and selling sneakers.

Advantage: NBA

NHL: 3 | NBA: 3

Playing Through Pain

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Certainly there are notable feats here in the NBA. Michael Jordan poured it on against Utah half dead from the flu, his teammates carrying him to the bench the way he carried them to titles. Willis Reed’s heroism might be the most famous, as he trotted down the tunnel and hit two quick buckets before Clyde Frazier led the Knicks to a Game 7 victory.

But in reality, Reed only made two baskets in the game and the Knicks won because of a collective effort by a team full of all-stars. In hockey, however, there is real grit. Both today and in its lore. The NHL sees Reed’s heroics and raises them the feat of Bobby Baun, who broke his ankle in the third period of the decisive game of the 1964 Finals only to return to the game and score the Stanley Cup-winning goal.

In 2010, Ian Laperriere blocked a shot and his face exploded. Never confused with an Abercrombie & Fitch model, Laperriere, one of the toughest and most lovable personalities in the game, recovered from multiple broken bones and a severe concussion to play in the Stanley Cup Finals only weeks later.

Canucks defenseman Sami Salo once took a puck in the scrotum that was rumored to have ruptured his testicle. Talk about busting your balls to win. For the rugged Finnish rearguard, it was a sorry ass excuse to miss time; he was in the lineup for Vancouver’s next game.

Advantage: NHL

NHL: 4 | NBA: 3

The Big Highlights

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While hockey has its indelible moments—Bobby Orr’s Flying V, Bobby Clarke’s toothless grin and Ken Dryden’s show-stopping debut—this is an area where the NBA has it beat. Big time.

The speed and volume of hockey plays combined with the size of the puck make it difficult to measure up. At its best, the game seems slow to a player but moves at a frenetic pace to a fan. By contrast, hoops showmen are able to slow time and defy gravity.

Hockey will never have a Julius Erving figure, cradling the rock like a golf ball for a jam or gliding along the baseline with unimaginable body control for a reverse layup. There will be no “Human Highlight Film” vs “Larry Legend” duels—even Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin’s 2009 matching hat tricks could not measure up. In the end, hockey is brutal beauty and basketball is just plain beautiful.

Advantage: NBA

NHL: 4 | NBA: 4

Justice

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How many times did you watch Bruce Bowen step under a jump shooter or Karl Malone cheap shot a defender? Didn’t you want to demand satisfaction? Unless you’re Metta World Violence, you were probably left wanting.

Settling the score is an appealing prospect in everyday life and, in hockey as in dueling, all it takes is the drop of a glove.

Look at this year’s Penguins-Flyers series, Claude Giroux and Sidney Crosby throwing hands despite being two of the biggest stars in the sport. Kobe and LeBron won’t even confront each other in the slam dunk contest!

Advantage: NHL

NHL: 5 | NBA: 4

The Fans

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Chris Rock once compared hockey to heroin, in that it’s not for everybody but the people are into it are really into it. The deafening volume of fans and the high volume of jerseys in the stands might stand as exhibits A and B.

This past season, nine NBA teams averaged capacity crowds or better, compared with 16 NHL clubs, which ranged from hulking metropolises such as Chicago to modest-sized markets like Winnipeg.

Hockey fans can even make the sedate, acoustically unfriendly Staples Center rock, to the point where a Lakers game can seem quieter than a Celine Dion show—at a prison.

Advantage: NHL

NHL: 6 | NBA: 4

The Longest Minute vs. the Shortest Minute

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Thanks to a seemingly endless supply of timeouts and planned TV stoppages, the final minute of an NBA game can unfold during the course of a reading of War and Peace. There are timeouts to advance the ball, timeouts to set the defense, and timeouts to draw up an offensive play, among other things. There are intentional delays of game by defenses on inbounds plays and rolling passes that prevent the clock from starting. To reach that one moment of buzzer-beating drama, one has to endure an hour of ennui.

In the NHL, the final minute of a close game is the quickest, hottest, most contested minute in sports. Power-play situations and pulled goalies mean a typical five-on-five game could shift to a scenario as lopsided as a six-on-three edge for a club with a a two-man advantage and its goalie pulled. The stakes are high and the risks are higher as defensemen pinch in 50 feet and inundate the goalie. Bodies, sticks, skates, pads, pucks, and emotions fly, swipe, bang, careen and swing all over the ice in a moment with the chaos of a riot and the coordination of a symphony.

Plus, an NHL game is 60 minutes with two intermissions that often concludes in the same time as a 48-minute, single-halftime NBA game. If you want to see plenty of Flo, the Progressive Insurance lady, watch the NBA. If you want to be exhilarated with minimal commercial interruption, try the NHL.

Advantage: NHL

NHL: 7 | NBA: 4

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