The absolute dominance of the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers is seemingly trumpeted on SportsCenter every night. Thankfully, in this tough economic time, the NBA has seen bust out performances from the likes of Kevin Garnett, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

I’d usually argue that this is a good thing for the league and that excellence draws more attention. But I’m actually more inclined to think that the dominance of these teams is actually the worst thing the league could have wished for. Why? Because the more teams you have at the .500 mark or better, the better off the league is in terms of convincing people to come out and watch a game or view it on television.

I looked back over the last nine regular seasons and discovered that, in most years, 15 or 16 teams finish the year with winning records. If you are to subscribe to the belief that the league is in the best shape when the most teams have a chance to win, you ideally want the deviation between those who have winning records and those with losing records to be as small of a win-loss gap as possible.

Well, thanks to the Celtics, Cavs and Lakers, look at what we have this year, compared to the last nine seasons.

YEAR              WINNING PCT OF ABOVE .500 TEAMS

2008-09                         .662

2007-08                      .632

2006-07                      .604

2005-06                      .639

2004-05                      .604

2003-04                      .598

2002-03                      .598

2001-02                      .595

2000-01                      .606

I didn’t go back any further, but there’s a chance that, through the first quarter of the season, we’ve never had this type of disparity ever before. In this economy, I don’t think that’s a good thing.

Questions?  Comments? 

POPULAR SPORTS BIZ POSTS

• 

• Could Eli Manning Be A Better Endorser Than Tom Brady? 

• 

• Releasing Ads Before Super Bowl Is A Mistake 

• 

• App Fines You For Missing The Gym 

COMMENTS

More Comments

 

« First | « Previous

Next » | Last »

Thank you for joining our discussion. Your comment has been posted.

ADD COMMENTS

Please Sign In or Register to participate.

In order to add a comment you must click here and accept our terms and conditions.

Edit Screen Name

Please sign-in/optin or register to be able to submit comments.

Remaining characters

CNBC welcomes your contribution. Please respect our community and the integrity of its participants. CNBC reserves the right to moderate and approve your comment.

Sorry, we are no longer accepting comments.

PREVIEW COMMENT

Your comments have not been posted yet.
Please review your submission to make sure you are comfortable with your entry.

Your Comments: