Friday, October 23, 2009
The NBA: Where no one caring happens.
For most basketball fans, the regular season doesn’t start until Kansas plays Hofstra Nov. 13. But for a smaller audience, that opening day is Oct. 27, the start of the NBA season.
The NBA doesn’t necessarily get people ecstatic about basketball like the NCAA does, especially in a college town like Lawrence. Whether it’s a lack of respect, a personal bias or the absence of a legitimate home team, the NBA is unjustifiably losing its luster.
People argue all the time against professional basketball because there is a lack of teamwork and the players are just in it for the cash. The money issue is partly true — because it’s their job. People have jobs to make money and who can fault them for getting compensated for their hard work?
The bottom line is, nobody can say with conviction that NBA players are selfish and showboaters. It is also argued that college players play as a team and play solid defense because they aren’t tainted by the dollar signs. When a kid goes from college to the pros, does his contract also come with an ego? Depending on the player in rare circumstances, it may. But it comes with monetary security.
For the record, they do play defense in the NBA. In an 82 game season, wear and tear makes it difficult to play gritty defense all the time. Basketball is a more physical sport than some people realize. Besides, even on a good defensive day, a better offense can beat the better defense, one-on-one.
That’s where the “team” portion comes into play. Kobe Bryant knows if he doesn’t get his teammates involved, the entire opposing defense will key off on him and make life difficult. As good as he is, he needs to divert defenses on others to be successful. And success is not measured in points per game.
College sports are great to watch. But the discrepancy between talent on some of these teams is tremendous and it makes defenses look better than they are. It’s easy to blow a team out of the water when they are your age and nowhere near as skilled or athletic as your team. Join professional basketball, and everyone is big, everyone is powerful and suddenly you don’t look so dominant.
Of course, there are beasts straight from college making an impact in the NBA such as Derrick Rose and Kevin Love. But out of all the players who played in college and actually made it to the NBA, the ratio is quite small.
The NBA ratings on television are terrible, the company is negatively affected by the economy and some of the most athletically gifted athletes of all time are being overlooked. Our generation is blessed to have the talent we have today — LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard. We need to watch these guys while we have the chance.
Friday YouTube Sesh
In lieu of both college and professional basketball seasons starting up, it’s time to get some school pride circulating.
Have you ever wondered where premier NBA center Dwight Howard would have spent his college career had he not made the jump from high school? Searching “Dwight Howard Jayhawk” may give us a clue.
— Edited by Jonathan Hermes
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