Miami Heat: The Denver Nuggets And The Making Of An NBA Rivalry
Akin to Miami Heat basketball, every once in a while, we get to experience something beautiful. Witnessing a lunar eclipse, visiting the grand canyon, watching an Orchid erupt into full bloom, or you know… the things we do not get to enjoy every day.
And on Monday, we all bore witness to another rare beauty: The creation of an NBA rivalry.
Such an event is so rare because divisions in the NBA are inconsequential to the playoff stacking. In other sports, however, rivalries are built into the season and amplified in the postseason.
Read. Will The Addition Of Victor Oladipo Help Or Hurt Them?. light
In the arenas of college football and basketball, conference games are the heart of the season. The weight of the schedule rests on the conference slate.
The importance of each meeting, combined with the teams playing such important games over and over again, breeds rivalries. Conference Title bouts nurture these rivalries, where clashes allowed to fester during the season are settled on some of the sport’s biggest stages.
With the culmination of an entire season on the line, it is no wonder that rivalries like Duke & North Carolina, Michigan & Ohio State, Texas & Oklahoma, Alabama & Auburn and so many others on a list that could go on and on and on… are in-conference.