Will you miss the NBA?

[Xerxes]

Myths perpetuated by people who never actually watch the NBA.

I would rate the NBA's "Thug Quotient" as far below that of the NFL. Most of the game's biggest stars are more GQ than they are street.

The defense in the NBA is exceptional. After the influence of Riley's Knicks it was too good (or at least too physical) for a while. Rule changes were adopted, the Phoenix Suns proved that you can create a lot of buzz by scoring tons of points, and now there is a pretty good balance between offense and defense. If you want proof of the great D, look at how great college scorers (JJ Redick, soon Kemba Walker) struggle so mightily to get the ball in the basket in the NBA.

College players do try harder during their regular season, but that is just the nature of the game. No sane person could bust their *** 100% for each and every game during an 82 game regular season. Crazy people like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan pull it off, but many NBA players take plays off here and there. But once you get to the playoffs the intensity in the NBA is unreal.

As previous posters have said, if you want to watch the most talented and exciting basketball players in the world, you watch the NBA. If you are into school pride and the spirit of competition, college hoops will do, but I have found the college basketball product very lacking ever since the best players started going straight to pro or 1-and-done.

The NBA has done a fantastic job in the last 5 years getting some of the bad apples out of the league. Most of the thugs have been blackballed by NBA GMs (Iverson). ESPN had a great article about this a few years ago.

I was making fun of the NBA not more than a few years ago. I tuned in to watch the Lakers/Celtics final back in 2008 and that completely changed my mind.

I chuckle at how uniformed I was regarding this league and how people still are like I was before.

If the owners can get rid of guaranteed contracts the NBA will go through the roof. The quality of play will dwarf anything that was seen even back in Magic, Bird, Jordan days.

 

[ISUhawk]

Thugs? b/c most are black?

 

[528646]

Myths perpetuated by people who never actually watch the NBA.

I would rate the NBA's "Thug Quotient" as far below that of the NFL. Most of the game's biggest stars are more GQ than they are street.

The defense in the NBA is exceptional. After the influence of Riley's Knicks it was too good (or at least too physical) for a while. Rule changes were adopted, the Phoenix Suns proved that you can create a lot of buzz by scoring tons of points, and now there is a pretty good balance between offense and defense. If you want proof of the great D, look at how great college scorers (JJ Redick, soon Kemba Walker) struggle so mightily to get the ball in the basket in the NBA.

College players do try harder during their regular season, but that is just the nature of the game. No sane person could bust their *** 100% for each and every game during an 82 game regular season. Crazy people like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan pull it off, but many NBA players take plays off here and there. But once you get to the playoffs the intensity in the NBA is unreal.

As previous posters have said, if you want to watch the most talented and exciting basketball players in the world, you watch the NBA. If you are into school pride and the spirit of competition, college hoops will do, but I have found the college basketball product very lacking ever since the best players started going straight to pro or 1-and-done.

I couldn't agree more. Every point you made is 100% on the money. I used to believe many of the same NBA myths (in retrospect I have wonder how many of which are racially motivated, I'm sorry to say) and just assume it wasn't a product worth watching. Now that I actually have tuned in over the last couple years, I've been shocked at what I've been missing. It is an excellent league with amazing entertainment value - some people just don't know what they are missing.

The other NBA gripe I hear - "why bother watching the games? You just need to tune into the last minute." Give me a break. For starters, name a sport you couldn't say that about, right? For another, a lot of those same people turn around and drool all over the NFL in the fall - news flash: most NFL games are the same way! They are decided in the final minutes.

 

[ICbornNraised]

I couldn't agree more. Every point you made is 100% on the money. I used to believe many of the same NBA myths (in retrospect I have wonder how many of which are racially motivated, I'm sorry to say) and just assume it wasn't a product worth watching. Now that I actually have tuned in over the last couple years, I've been shocked at what I've been missing. It is an excellent league with amazing entertainment value - some people just don't know what they are missing.

The other NBA gripe I hear - "why bother watching the games? You just need to tune into the last minute." Give me a break. For starters, name a sport you couldn't say that about, right? For another, a lot of those same people turn around and drool all over the NFL in the fall - news flash: most NFL games are the same way! They are decided in the final minutes.

Agree, go watch soccer if you don't want it to come down to the final minute....

 

[trj]

Yes, there's only so many 60-55, 32% shooting, sloppy B10 games I can watch in a row. I need to watch some actual good basketball to cleanse my basketball palate in between. Not sure where I'm going to find that this year if there is a strike.

lol, we are actually on the same page for once.....must be a full moon or something.

 

[trj]

Thugs? Why would you say that?

Black dudes with tats scare white folk, he does not look like Will Smith, gotta be a thug, it is not Denzel, keep the women and children away.

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

Haven't watched since Jordan.

Thugs.

No defense.

College players try harder.

Ha the defense in the NBA is so much better than in college. You're just confusing terrible shooting in college basketball with good defense. Happens a lot to people who don't know much about basketball.

 

[trj]

This poll is moot. There will be a season it will be abbreviated, but there will be a season.

NBAPA is far weaker than MLB/NFL and will cave at some point. The owners will get a hard cap like they want. The two sticking points will be non-guaranteed contracts and what is at the heart of every negotiation/lockout in sports revenue sharing among the owners. What are the big market teams willing to share with the little guy. How much of a fight will NBAPA put up against non-guaranteed contracts will tell you how long this will last.

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

This poll is moot. There will be a season it will be abbreviated, but there will be a season.

NBAPA is far weaker than MLB/NFL and will cave at some point. The owners will get a hard cap like they want. The two sticking points will be non-guaranteed contracts and what is at the heart of every negotiation/lockout in sports revenue sharing among the owners. What are the big market teams willing to share with the little guy. How much of a fight will NBAPA will put up against non-guaranteed contracts will tell you how long this will last.

I wouldn't be so sure that there will be a season. I think there's a decent chance they miss the entire year. Six of the NBA owners also own nhl teams and have been through a lockout which cost them the whole season and benefited the owners in the end. There also won't be a hard cap, at least not for five years or so, the NBA knows they need good teams in large markets and they aren't going to force LA or Miami to break up.

 

[CP87]

Maybe they don't need an 82 game regular season. I kind of feel the same way about baseball's 9 zillion game season. Each game is not so important.

I agree with you in regards to both baseball and basketball, and for that matter, the NFL. I think each of those leagues would be improved with shorter regular seasons.

But of course, the main objective of any pro sports league is to make as much money as possible, not to optimize the quality of play.

I think I would like to see something like the following:

NBA - around 50 regular season games, best of 5 series for the opening round of the playoffs, and the Bill Simmons proposed Entertaining as Hell Tournament to determine the last 2 seeds in each conference.

MLB - around 120 regular season games. Shorter regular season with more off days, especially now that they have banned greenies. Playoffs seem to work pretty well, but they will definitely benefit from not ending in November. Perhaps start times can also be moved up so games don't end past midnight.

NFL - 2 preseason, 14 regular.

 

[trj]

I wouldn't be so sure that there will be a season. I think there's a decent chance they miss the entire year. Six of the NBA owners also own nhl teams and have been through a lockout which cost them the whole season and benefited the owners in the end. There also won't be a hard cap, at least not for five years or so, the NBA knows they need good teams in large markets and they aren't going to force LA or Miami to break up.

Your points are valid especially about the hard cap. It just seems like a big waste of time Stern and the owners will get what they want. As soon as guys starting missing checks Billy Hunter will advise the players to give in and they will.

Why kill the popularity/momentum of last season do this little song and dance til November and get deal done.

 

[FML]

The NBA has no more thugs than the NFL or College football or basketball. Hell, half the league is from europe.

 

[Hawkeye11en1]

Most of the people taking this poll likely live in Iowa where there is no NBA team. I suspect people living in NBA cities will miss it very much.

I live near an NBA city and still don't care...does that count?

 

[trj]

Myths perpetuated by people who never actually watch the NBA.

I would rate the NBA's "Thug Quotient" as far below that of the NFL. Most of the game's biggest stars are more GQ than they are street.

The defense in the NBA is exceptional. After the influence of Riley's Knicks it was too good (or at least too physical) for a while. Rule changes were adopted, the Phoenix Suns proved that you can create a lot of buzz by scoring tons of points, and now there is a pretty good balance between offense and defense. If you want proof of the great D, look at how great college scorers (JJ Redick, soon Kemba Walker) struggle so mightily to get the ball in the basket in the NBA.

College players do try harder during their regular season, but that is just the nature of the game. No sane person could bust their *** 100% for each and every game during an 82 game regular season. Crazy people like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan pull it off, but many NBA players take plays off here and there. But once you get to the playoffs the intensity in the NBA is unreal.

As previous posters have said, if you want to watch the most talented and exciting basketball players in the world, you watch the NBA. If you are into school pride and the spirit of competition, college hoops will do, but I have found the college basketball product very lacking ever since the best players started going straight to pro or 1-and-done.

This is spot on except for it was the Pistons of the late 80's, early 90's that started the whole grab and hold, grind it out basketball. The Pistons were fun to watch they had guys who could shoot, who could score. It was those Knick/Heat teams that followed that were the problem. Those Knick/heat teams had too many guys like John Starks who could for 30 one night and shoot 3 for 20 the next.

The iso with a dude with a big rear end backing people down on the block wasn't fun to watch unless it was Barkley.

 

[MinnHawk89]

Most of the people taking this poll likely live in Iowa where there is no NBA team. I suspect people living in NBA cities will miss it very much.

I live in an NBA city and I won't miss it - no wait Minneapolis doesn't count as an NBA city.

 

[trj]

The NBA has done a fantastic job in the last 5 years getting some of the bad apples out of the league. Most of the thugs have been blackballed by NBA GMs (Iverson). ESPN had a great article about this a few years ago.

I was making fun of the NBA not more than a few years ago. I tuned in to watch the Lakers/Celtics final back in 2008 and that completely changed my mind.

I chuckle at how uniformed I was regarding this league and how people still are like I was before.

If the owners can get rid of guaranteed contracts the NBA will go through the roof. The quality of play will dwarf anything that was seen even back in Magic, Bird, Jordan days.

It wasn't bad apples per se it was the Jordan effect. Too many teams had shoot first point guards, too many guys with the "I gotta get mine" mentality. In fact that attitude permeated throughout the league. For a while there every team in the league seem to have a Iverson or Marbury on their team.

I think the brawl in Detroit in '04 was the turning point, dress code was instituted, rule changes were made they did what they had to-to clean up their image and to put a better product out on the floor.

 

[WhiteThunder]

I will miss it for sure, but I think it's a necessary evil. The league has been pretty messed up financially, so hopefully it gets straightened out.

 

[MikeyJoe]

Myths perpetuated by people who never actually watch the NBA.

 

[MikeyJoe]

Thugs? Why would you say that?

I wouldn't. I just figured we should get all of the usual NBA critic cliches out of the way early.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

Not for a second. Wouldn't miss baseball or hockey, either.

Vin, we're agree again! wow, must be a Holiday weekend.

As for the NBA, it's the most narcissistic pro sports league out there. There was a great post-Finals column that nailed it...wish I could find it.