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To me, it looks like the NBA is beginning to fall... Or has been for some time. And I attribute that to the moronic players who are seeking nothing more than celebrity status. (Why is there a basketball wives show?)
I like NBA when the Hawks or Magic are playing well. I think the Warriors-Cavalier games are fun to watch. Basketball Wives is something Shaqs ex wife created for women to watch. Women watched it, so it got more seasons.
I'm biased towards the MLS because in the past couple of years it's become the first professional soccer league I've followed closely (as opposed to following only standout players and teams from other leagues). But realistically I understand MLS would get crushed against the top European leagues. Fortunately I think having very good play quality, as opposed to the best play in the world, is just fine as long as a league engages fans with its overall atmosphere. It's similar to the way NBA has higher quality play than college basketball, but many people prefer to watch college for a number of different reasons.
MLS has excellent facilities for such a young league, plus the fan atmosphere in its stadiums equals or exceeds the fan atmosphere for established major stateside leagues. They're expanding quickly and aggressively, which in the short-term may dilute talent but in the big picture indicates there's a more-than-adequate market for growing the sport and the league long-term. MLS is a big television contract away from being able to better compete monetarily with the top worldwide leagues for talent.
In the meantime MLS has to settle for the designated player rule, meaning only three players on a roster can make money similar to what they'd command in the more prominent leagues. One thing I'm curious about is if the success, or relative lack thereof, of many designated players in the league indicates MLS is higher than people give it credit for. I'm no expert on most of the league's rosters, but I do believe it's not uncommon for designated players to have an underwhelming impact. Maybe American teams and fans would be well-served to dedicate ourselves to developing more homegrown talent, and to stop assuming American-born players don't have the potential to be as good as players who happen to be natives of countries with more prominent leagues.
I think MLS ranks somewhere between 20th and 30th spots worldwide .
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