Well another Thursday has come and, yes, I do have another
Thrashing for you to enjoy, hate, or feel nothing about. As a friendly reminder, a thrashing is
defined as a "clear victory." In my rants, I will be 100% right
100% of the time. You may argue your point but I will tell you to cram it
up your cramhole. Yes you are a
loser, I’m a winner. Deal with it. I won’t bore you any longer with my lame
introduction. My topic is relatively
simple yet complex. It is the NBA or the
National Basketball Association.
I was actually enjoying watching Dirk Nowitzki and the
Dallas Mavericks shattering LeBron James’ dreams last June in the 2011 NBA
Finals. Playoff basketball is actually
very good as the players seem to figure out they should play hard and, frankly,
it’s very impressive. The playoff
commercials always describe it as the second season and unfortunately that is
true. An 82 game season leads to, um,
how should I describe it? A lazy, boring
majority of games. I would venture to
guess a veteran player who understands the grind plays at 100% for about 1/3 of
the season if he knows his team is a playoff team. Now for those of you who disagree with that
assessment and see a player’s stats, let’s face it, most All-Star players 80%
effort is better than depth/scrub players 110%.
Watching Dirk win Finals MVP and seeing Chris Bosh crying as
he walked back into the locker room seemed like the right justification for
whatever the Miami Heat put us through last year. As a Cavaliers fan, of course I wanted to see
LeLoser lose but what the Miami Heat showed us last year, with all their stupid
antics, is that the NBA, while obviously popular, is a lost cause. Then the inevitable lockout occurred. Experts
and analysts were saying this was the real deal. It could easily last the entire season. I honestly hoped it would. It seemed like, if anything, the players
could use a dose of reality for a year.
The game they loved would be taken away and maybe, just maybe, they
would come back the following season renewed in their efforts and
attitude. Then of course the lockout
shockingly ended and a 66 game season was finalized starting this past
Christmas Day.
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| What happened to all those championships you were supposed to win? |
A part of my soul ached hearing this news but a part of me
also asked, “Ok, it’s back, would an entire season lockout actually changed
anything?” It got me thinking that probably
it would not. The game of basketball,
when played at its finest, is a smooth up-tempo style of game with aggressive defense,
skilled passing, and smooth shooting.
However, with the back and forth nature of dribbling the ball, the long
12 minute quarters, and an excessive amount of timeouts, the game also can be
very slow. Just watch the final 2
minutes of a game sometime. Fouling and
timeouts are just outrageous! It’s truly
a shame too because as I grew up my favorite sport was basketball. I loved playing from elementary school rec
ball to eventually a starter on my varsity high school basketball team.
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| I hated #23 growing up but man o man do I miss his incredible desire to win no matter the cost. |
I miss the days of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry
Bird, Isaiah Thomas, and even Charles Barkley!
Sir Charles, by the way, was great this past weekend on Saturday Night
Live. I always liked him because he just
said whatever is on his mind and knows he’s got major issues to deal with i.e.
gambling and weight loss. I remember
those Olympic Dream Teams in the 90s and I thought this is great
basketball. It seemed basketball was at
an all-time high. I think professional
basketball turned for the worst very soon after when high school seniors became
eligible for the draft and were being taken #1 overall or in the first round of
drafts. We all know people aren’t
perfect. Kobe Bryant was one of those
kids taken high in the draft and he’s had quite the roller coaster of a hall of
fame career. For every Kobe, Tracy
McGrady, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James you have an Eddy Curry or Kwame Brown. I am not saying these guys lack talent but
you have to wonder how the maturity level has affected the league. Look back to when you were 18 years old. Imagine being courted by billionaire owners
and current millionaire players. Then
imagine being handed that hat by Commissioner David Stern in the first
round. How awesome would that be? For
some, the transition has been smoother than others. You then are critiqued for every single move
by the media and expected by the fan base to turn around a franchise. It’s the ultimate challenge. You wonder how Greg Oden feels being injured
all the time or John Wall as the Wizards are easily the worst team in the
league.
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| Remember Sebastian Telfair? No? Hyped high school players don't work out that much. |
The NCAA one and done rule certainly doesn’t help much. One year of college hoops. Whoop-dee-freakin-doo. Sure, you get one year of better experience
at the collegiate level. But let’s be
honest, it isn’t the level of skill we are worried about. It’s the mental capacity of players to handle
a career in professional sports. If you recall your freshman year of college,
it was pretty much a continuation of your senior year of high school. You showed up on campus not knowing really
what to expect, you took some basic classes, and just hoped you finished the
year with decent grades and an idea of what you wanted to do the rest of your
life. It wasn’t until that second or
third year that each of us started defining who we hoped to become.
The game has great players, great talent, and probably the
best athletes in the world. I don’t
really care that the game now is predominantly black or European. You are always going to have a handful of
prima donnas. You are going to see great
games like last night’s Clippers and Heat overtime slug fest where you begin to
think, hey, maybe we are turning a corner.
To make an honest change to a sport, it starts with the players. I am not saying it is up to the players
completely because we all know that would be insane but the system certainly
puts them at a disadvantage.
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| We are killing a great college game because the NBA is a joke. |
I believe the best fix would be to make players go to
college at least 2 years before eligible.
In the NFL you have to be 3 years removed from high school to be
eligible. Why? Mainly because of the
physical aspect of that game. Why can’t
we have a similar attitude towards the mental aspect of the NBA? The NBA is easily on top of the sports totem
pole in terms of being viewed based on its individual players. It’s defined more by its players than its
teams. It’s always LeBron vs. Kobe or
the Big 3. In fact, the best players
just flock to certain teams or markets just to be more popular. Small market teams don’t stand a chance
because players just want to leave eventually.
That would lead to my next fix of contraction of teams. If we are going to have more meaningful
regular season games, let’s just put the best players on a smaller amount of
teams. This would lead to more
passionate basketball on a nightly basis.
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| It's too bad this game isn't real life! BOOMSHAKALAKA |
I honestly hope to see some of these changes in the near
future. I love the game of
basketball. When I’m just sitting around
the apartment, I usually have my basketball in my hands just flicking it up in
the air. It’s a game that takes great
endurance, skill, perseverance, and dedication.
When played at its finest, it’s arguably the best sport to watch because
you can see and feel every emotion on a player’s face. So, this is my call out. NBA, please, do something. I feel like the sport is teetering. Please don’t fall back down the hill. Finally, on a completely unrelated note,
David Stern you suck and Ron Artest, you should change your name every season,
I enjoy hearing announcers say your fake name Metta World Peace when you
shoot.
Let's pray we never see this again...
