With the extremely exciting Phoenix Suns out of the NBA Playoffs and the matchup between the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers looking so much like Michael Jordan went through early in his career, the specter of a San Antonio vs. Detroit NBA Finals is on the horizon. With two defensive-minded teams looking to be the favorites in a rematch of a few years back, it serves as a reminder as to just how boring championships can be. Here’s a list of the most boring sports championships in recent memory.
2005 NBA Finals San Antonio Spurs vs. Detroit Pistons
Sure they play basketball the way it’s supposed to be played, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch. Five times a team was held below eighty points and eight times a team was held below ninety points. Regardless of the fact that defense wins championships, offense sells tickets. It’s hard for a seven-game series to be boring throughout with the exception of a game or two, but San Antonio and Detroit managed to give us one of the most boring NBA Finals ever conceived. Fans would have been better off picking up a video game and playing the finals for themselves.
2003 NBA Finals San Antonio Spurs vs. New Jersey Nets
Oh look, it’s San Antonio on the list again, go figure. The microcosm of how boring this series is game 4. New Jersey won game 4 by a score of 77 to 76. The odd thing is that the series had a surprisingly interesting start in which San Antonio won by a score of 101 to 89. Sadly, as far as entertainment goes, it was all downhill from there. The series is the lowest rated in league history, which was especially surprising after coming off of three series featuring the Los Angeles Lakers.
2006 World Series St. Louis Cardinals vs. Detroit Tigers
Here’s another one for the studies and the research papers. Summing up how boring this series can be described as such: games 1, 3, and 4 set all-time lows in terms of television ratings. It doesn’t get much worse than that. Much of the blame was placed on the fact that the two teams were from smaller markets than the White Sox, Yankees, and Red Sox. Nevertheless, the baseball wasn’t all that great either. The Detroit Tigers’ pitchers seemed to be costing them the game every day with horrendous fielding. Couple that with the star power that the Cardinals do have and there’s just simply no excuse for this series to as boring as it was.
Super Bowl XXXVII Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Oakland Raiders
This game was never in doubt. By the second quarter, the Buccaneers were up by seventeen points and the Raiders wouldn’t score a touchdown until Tampa Bay reeled over thirty-four straight points. Everyone loves scoring but a blowout in a championship game is never good. The Oakland Raiders suddenly looked like they should have been applying for their AARP cards by the time the fourth quarter rolled around and there simply wasn’t a chance that they were going to come back.