I don’t pay that much attention to the NBA anymore. Not since the Sonics left Seattle, and that seems like a long, long time ago. It was in fact a decade ago, in 2008, and it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve started to pay attention.
What has struck me so much is not what has changed (though a lot has changed), but how much has stayed the same. The NBA Finals could still feature players I was well aware of before 2008 like LeBron James and David West. Or Joe Johnson and Al Horford.