Makes more sense that you would feel that way about the NBA during the regular season. I really do not watch NBA until the playoffs, during the regular season there are just too many teams and players that “phone it in” if they are not in playoff contention and defense is non-existent for the most part. Even the playoffs are not as exciting as they could be…those 7 game series in the first round are a bit much.
College basketball, to me is the game at its purest level. You will see more COACHES with the non-endearing personalities (ie. Bob Knight, John Calipari, Bruce Pearl) than you will players. And while there are some players who are a level above–Michael Beasley of Kansas State and OJ Mayo of USC come to mind–the game is the thing, not individual stats. The media puts focus on the top scorers and rebounders, you will never hear a player talk about individual stats.
I am with you that NBA seems to run year round. The playoffs end, what, in June?? Then they start back up again in September? I’ve always thought they should cut the regular season short by about 20 games and the playoffs cut back to 10 or 12 teams rather than 16…but that would never happen, too much $$$ involved.
The NCAA starts in October and ends in late March/early April…5 months give or take. That seems to be just right.
When they are both running concurrently, though, you’re right, that’s ALOT of basketball!!
Whaaaa?
Helping his team? You mean by scoring 30 pts a game because he shoots it 50-60 times?
Iverson is skilled, no doubt, but he’s not exactly a model type guy to hold up as to the “cleanness” of the NBA nor as someone that’s a “help to his team”.
This is the same guy that routinely skipped practices under Larry Brown and bitched about it when called on it.
I would take Nash over him any day as a model for team play…or Jason Kidd, or John Stockton in his heydey…
Ah basketball. My genetic freaks can beat your genetic freaks. Any sport that 6 ft 9 is too small to play a position is not in my understanding.
I watch NCAA tourney . I always want a 16 to beat a 1.
Pro season is too long. The players lose interest. The fans lose interest. The last 5 minutes determines most games. For most of an hour they play at 3/4 speed.
The playoffs are so much better. If they don’t allow the refs to screw it up.It has been a dishonestly reffed sport for quite a while.
:rolleyes:
Fine, add Duncan, KG and, say, Bruce Bowen then. (assuming the statute of limitations has expired on David Robinson)
But IMO, that you can debate this is part of what makes basketball interesting to watch (as opposed to play, which is a different question). There’s almost a perfect tension between individual and team efforts.
In any given game, one player can put in a great performance and pull even sub-par teammates to victory (see LeBron, or Garnett when he was in Minnesota). On the other hand, superior teamwork can also overcome raw talent (see Pistons, or Princeton’s regular upsets in the NCAA). That makes games and matchups interesting and worth watching, at least to me.
Sort of similarly, defensive schemes are simple enough to recognize and understand the basics, but different enough (particularly in college, where zone defences work better) to make the strategic choices interesting and meaningful. At the same time, individual defensive effort and one-on-one matchups still matter.
Now, it can be a problem appreciating this in the NBA, as the league office thinks I am a completely atypical basketball fan, and believes most people watch it to see a few superstars making monster dunks all the time. NBA rules and officiating styles are biased highly towards individuals and especially high-profile stars (cough2006 finalscough). And it’s certainly true that in the long NBA regular season nobody puts forth maximum effort on every night. But there’s still enough to make it worth watching on occasion. And NCAA games offer great sports watching, even if careers there are too short to really follow individuals.
Well, to my mind, basketball is just plain dull. Too much scoring, and the game is only interesting in the final five minutes (if it’s close). Until then, any single basket is meaningless. It’s like cheering a fielder handling a routine ground ball.
Give me hockey or baseball or even football any day.
Different strokes and all that…obviously not everyone is wired to enjoy basketball.
But focusing on individual scoring events is the wrong way to go. There are far fewer scoring events in soccer, baseball, football, etc., so they take on much greater importance. Each basket in a b-ball game is important, but in the way that each step is important in a mile-long foot race is important.
The way to watch basketball is similar to watching a long track race (although track runners usually don’t leap 5 feet into the air and crush a ball through a hoop in a way that makes you glad you’re on your couch and nowhere near the point of impact…come to think of it, that might improve track and field considerably! )
But anyway, if one team is scoring 3 out of four times down the court and the other is scoring only 3 out of 5, then the first team pulls ahead. This creates tension, not only because the team behind starts to press just like a runner who is falling behind…each possession becoming more important…but also because, just like in a foot race, there’s the possibility of a home-stretch burst by the team behind. The front-runner has to keep the pressure on, and the team behind has to hope for a swing of momentum. It can be very exciting when viewed that way.
This is funny; I used to feel pretty much the same way–“basketball is so boring, it’s just a bunch of guys running back and forth”–and after meeting my husband and realizing I was going to have to watch a lot of basketball with him, I started asking questions and he’d point out things that were happening, so I understand it so much better, and I love the game now. So, if you genuinely do want to learn to enjoy basketball, I recommend watching a few games with somebody who really understands the game and can point out the subtleties; TiVo/DVR is extremely helpful here, so you can back up and watch some of the plays over again. There really is strategy and a lot more going on than just run back and forth and throw the ball–as others have pointed out, you can say that about almost any game, and there’s always a lot more going on than that.
I’m guessing he was exaggerating. Iverson was pretty well known for taking 25-30 shots a game (with at least 2-3 being very ill-advised) during his years with Philly. I couldn’t stand him as a player then. He did nothing to make his teammates better, and they to the Finals in 2001 (I think) strictly because of a very weak east.
Most sports strive to have fair and neutral officiating. The NBA had Jordan rules. He was allowed to take steps and he could charge at will and the foul would go to the defender. Arguments nowadays include whether a player has earned his favorable reffing. Wade got great breaks against the Pistons a couple years ago. ,That should never be permitted.
What I don’t like about basketball, and I like all sports - even basketball, is when the whistle blows for a foul, nobody has any idea what the call is. Not the players, not the coaches, not the announcers. Then the ref then makes a call and everyone has a strong response. From the fans booing or cheering to the offending player who pleads his case.
Specifically, the difference between charging and blocking is so minute that the call seems to always come out of nowhere.
The same thing for out-of bounds plays; it’s only in instant-replay that the announcers give the ref props for the right call.
I love x’s and o’s. In all sports, I like to watch defensive schemes and offensive strategies. In basketball, you can play defense so amazingly well, that you force the offense into throwing up a super-low-percentage shot, yay you…until it goes in. That is so frustrating and goes against any kind of normal skill vs luck ratio.
I said a lot here, and all of it was generalized, but please don’t reply with “not always” comments. Of course when I say it ‘always’ happens, it’s not 100% of the time, but I see it a lot.
Is there stealth threadshitting going on n here now? I dunno. Maybe it’s just me.
Saying nobody has any idea why a foul happens is silly.
Complaining about correct out-of-bounds calls is pretty ludicrous as well.
That’s the beauty of basketball, though. You can lock down the offense and force the to put up a bad shot…and it can go in. Virtually everything is possible.
You did say a lot and I think it was all pretty wrong.
The general rule about appreciating a well-established sport with a gigantic worldwide fan base (like basketball or soccer) is that if you think there’s no strategy, you’re wrong. Period. It’s a common complaint about every single popular sport by people who don’t understand the sport, and they’re simply objectively wrong. Once you understand the strategy involved, you see that there’s plenty of it. This is the case for all sports, and basketball and soccer are no exception; soccer, in fact, involves a massive undertaking of strategy that would make it a much better fit for the popular chess-match metaphor than American football if it weren’t so much faster-paced than that sport.
I, too, used to think there was no strategy to Am. football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and other sports–until I actually played varsity basketball. I’m too far removed from the game nowadays to lay out all of the strategy involved, but I can tell you that there are excellent “For Dummies” books that are aimed at those who would like to understand the strategy involved–generally, at least one for each popular sport. I haven’t read any Basketball for Dummies books–when I got interested in basketball, I needed a more in-depth guide aimed at players–but I can personally vouch for Soccer for Dummies, which was written by a near-legendary US National Team player. It has everything you need to know to at least understand what’s going on out there, laid out in plain layman’s English. Football for Dummies, written by legendary linebacker Howie “Who Says Linebackers Are Dumb?” Long, is also an excellent resource. Given those two examples, I assume Basketball for Dummies is going to be a great way to learn the basics of appreciating the game, and it’s probably written by a highly-respected former player or coach.
ETA: Yep. Basketball for Dummies is written by Richard “Digger” Phelps, legendary Notre Dame basketball coach from the 70s to the 90s, who shares the NCAA record for most upsets over a #1 team and is famous for ending UCLA’s record 88-game winning streak in 1974. And after retiring, did he sit back and relax? No, he worked as an observer in the 1993 elections in Cambodia. Awesome.
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