Why the "Big Four" should be reduced to the "Big Three"

For those who don't know, the "Big Four" is the title given to the group of the four major sports leagues here in the United States.  It is comprised of the MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA. 

Let's play a game.  One of these things do not belong.  Can you guess which one it is?

If you said the NBA, you would be correct.  

Perhaps it's because I grew up in a city that had no NBA team but I cannot, and will not, ever see the appeal of the NBA.  Today was the start of the new NBA season, and as per usual, ESPN shit their pants in excitement.  They didn't know what to do during the NBA offseason - eventually running out of Lebron James highlights to re run on Sports Center.  

The NBA is a joke, it's not a professional sport.  The Big Four should be reduced to the Big Three, due to Three Big reasons:

Ridiculous Play/Rules:  Plainly put, every four seconds in the NBA there is a foul.  It's not truly the league's fault, it's always been the fault of the sport.  The game has no constancy, no flow.  It has too many fouls, too many unscheduled stoppages of play.  It's a game where there, in it's purest form, is all offensive - no defense.  It's way too one sided to one sided to be a professional sport.  It's just not fun to watch.  (Notice how I say professional - college basketball is a different story - I will discuss that in a different article).

High Scoring Games:  Professional sports should be tough, close matches.  They don't have to be tremendously low scoring but enough that the professional nature of both teams involved is shown.  The average professional basketball game has a team scoring in the hundreds of points.  That's insane.  As previously mentioned, the sport, specifically on the professional side, is far too offensively sided.  There is no real way to play defense and the league punishes who ever tries too with ample fouls that lead to even more scoring.  People go to NBA games to see a lot of scoring - but as I get older I realize what a load of crap that is.  Just because something is high scoring does not mean it's fun to watch.  When I go see a professional sport I want to see professional competition.  I want close scoring games in which both teams have a chance of winning. The NBA just does not offer that - not to the extent where I would shell out any money to see it. 

Pompous Stars:  The starts the inhabit the NBA are flat out garbage.  It may be a personal preference, but I believe professional athletes should carry themselves as such, as professionals.  They should be people I would want my kids to look up too.  You can say whatever you want about their work ethic but off the court they are terrible.  They flaunt their stardom over everyone, over their fans, over the people who, without them, would be nothing.  There is not a single NBA star currently in the league that I would support, not one I would tell my kids: "There, there's a person too look up to".  I'd tell them first to look up to discouraged cyclist Lance Armstrong before even thinking about telling them to loot to an NBA star as a role model.