*The Asterisk Season.
It'll be good to have basketball back but this season will also be one of those heavily debated & scrutinized seasons.
I'd almost just rather fast-forward and start '20-21 come November or December.
Thinking about this, does anybody really view '99 or '12 as asterisks seasons? I know I don't, and I don't think most do either (outside of
Shaq or
Phil Jackson). It probably helps that teams that ended up with strong legacies won in those years (Spurs and Heat). Now if something unexpected happened, like the #8 seed Knicks beating the Spurs, or one of the more unusual or fluke championships ended up happening that year (like the 2004 Pistons), I think it might be more scrutinized in debates:
"A team without a superstar can't win a championship?"
"What about the Pistons in '04?"
"That doesn't count it was an asterisk season."
But I don't think anybody really says that Duncan only has 4 championships plus an asterisk (outside of his direct, bitter rivals) or LeBron only has 2 real championships. Even in the LeBron vs Kobe vs Jordan debates, I'm not hearing LeBron detractors saying one of his rings doesn't count (though haven't really been paying attention either). And we have a bunch of LeBron haters here too, so you'd think I'd hear it more if people really felt that way.
So if something not unexpected happens (LAL, LAC, MIL win it all), I don't think most people will look back at it with an asterisk (though now that I think about it, it would be interesting that 2 of LeBron's championships ended up that way).
Personally, I think a canceled season is worse when looking back. Looking at the '94 baseball strike, Tony Gwynn might have hit .400, Matt Williams was on pace for 60.6 home runs, a beloved player like Don Mattingly was set to make the playoffs for the first time in his 13 year career, small market Montreal Expos were finally shining and had a legit shot to win the World Series. To me, having those what ifs are worse than any asterisk.