The NBA is better than ever — and improving

Last Thursday night, the NBA received a ratings share of more than 12 in the Washington area as the Los Angeles Lakers moved to within one win of claiming their 15th NBA title.

It is not secret, the NBA is alive and well.

All indications point to the fact that the NBA has passed Major League Baseball as Amer-ica's favorite sport.

While the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox were battling on Thursday night, New York City had more people watching the NBA than watching the baseball game.

Los Angeles and Orlando, Fla., where both Final participants are from, saw their shares soar over 20.

NBA Commissioner David Stern should be looked upon as a genius by other professional league commissioners and owners.

He put in place a dress code a couple of years ago that many deemed as a racist move.

Now, NBA players—whether they are entering the arena for a game, sitting on the bench due to injury or talking with the press after the game—dress better than most people who work on Wall Street.

NBA players are quickly losing the thug image and are cleaning up their act.

There are still some who need a lot of polish. But for the most part, NBA players are really putting things together in a respectful way.

In all probability, the Lakers will win their 15th NBA title in 30 appearances; they enter Saturday night's Game 5 with a 3-1 advantage.

The game is the last to be played in Orlando, where the Magic have been rather hard to beat all season.

If the Magic can pull the game out of the fire, however, the series moves back to L.A., where there is just no chance whatsoever that the Magic can beat the Lakers two straight on games on their home court. Throughout the playoffs, the Lakers have yet to lose two consecutive games.

Back to the league as a whole: Stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steve Nash, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Chris Paul have turned the league around.

Their ability, along with others, have brought fans back to watch them play at a level never seen before in the NBA.

It is hard, very hard, to compare past eras with today's game, because today's game has changed so much.

But it has changed for the better.

This is not the league that Jerry West and Bill Russell played in, nor is it the league the Magic Johnson, Larry Bird or even Michael Jordan played in.

It is a new league with athletes at every position and with athletes from around the world.

The NBA has achieved global status and an alarming rate. A rate that even surprised Stern a couple of years ago.

And now foreign companies are buying into NBA teams, like the Chinese businessmen who pur-chased a percentage of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

All is well with the NBA and if the season ends tonight, don't worry. The NBA will be back in October 2010 even better than it is today.

Jeff Christian is a freelance columnist who appears in The News & Messenger each Sunday. He can be reached at .