The more people hate on Miami, the better it is for the NBA

The bad guys get all the attention. Mobsters. Bank robbers. Drug kingpins. War criminals. Pro wrestlers who betray their tag-team partners. New Yorkers. The more nefarious and loathsome you are, the more ink you'll surely receive.

In a more innocuous and entertaining way, that's always been true in sports, too.

If the last few weeks - or, rather, the last year or so - of professional basketball have taught us anything, it's that the American public's interest in supporting something might be eclipsed by its fondness for standing opposed to something else. If part of sports fandom is rooting for a team, the rest is active opposition to whatever rankles for myriad reasons. Some people love to hate the villain more than they enjoy backing the hero. It is the darker yang to sports' family-friendly yin.

That's why the Miami Heat are the best thing to happen to the NBA since Michael Jordan won his final championship by hitting a shot with a picture-perfect follow-through. From a sports-as-entertainment perspective, it's irrelevant if they win or lose a host of titles over the next few years. What's important is that they've become professional basketball's bull's-eye - a giant target for fans and media members to sling sharpened darts at for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Before the Finals began, ESPN ran a poll. There were three options: Are you rooting for the Heat, against the Heat or for the Mavericks? It was nice of the World Wide Leader to throw Dallas in for good measure, but the NBA's dominant plotline could have been neatly summarized without including the Mavs.

Maybe you hate the Heat because of LeBron James and his insufferable navel gazing and excuse making. Maybe you hate how three players managed to circumvent typical league practices and engineer a would-be dynasty all on their own and without much effort or compunction. Maybe you hate that they represent a giant roadblock laid smack in the parade route plans of every other team in the league. Maybe you hate the Heat's unyielding, the-world-is-against-us whining. Maybe you hate their schoolboy immaturity - recently on display when James and Dwyane Wade were caught fake coughing on camera in an attempt to mock Dirk Nowitzki. Or, who knows, maybe you're a contrarian who hates everyone who hates the Heat, and as a result you've knowingly or unwittingly aligned yourself with Miami.