Love basket, Played 2 to 3 time a week for years. My brother actually had season tickets for a while and I was able to go to a ton of games. Under Stern, the product of the game, in my opinion, fell to a show boat arena, reminding me more of Big Time Wrestling than true basketball. Every day it seems I see a game highlight, and everyone is showing some 7 foot giant slamming into people and dunking the ball. Yes there is some skill, but not nearly as much as some of the true shooters of years ago. I pretty much quit watching when I saw a bad call during a playoff. A star player tried to dunk and was cleanly blocked. He started crying like a two year old and the refs blew a late whistle. The resulting free throws resulted in his teaming pulling ahead and winning the series. . After the game they interviewed the rookie and asked him how he felt about the call going against him. His response was classic and basically summed up the state of the game. "he deserves calls like that. When I have more time in the league, the refs will start to call them in my favor."
Basketball is now more about making stars, pop culture, and making money than providing a good, fair game. It seems to work in the money department, but you won't see me buying into it.