Do you like the NBA?
When I ask most sports fans that question, they say no. Usually, they add the following caveat:
“But I do like college basketball.”
They say that college players “care more” and that they “play harder.” By the time I’ve explained that it only seems like the college players are playing harder because they haven’t yet learned how to control their bodies, and so spend an inordinate amount of time slamming into each other and into the floor*, they’ve begun high-fiving fellow Kansas Jayhawk fans and I’m left craning my neck to see the one television in the bar that is showing the Finals game.
I’ve come to accept that I’m not going to convince many people to watch the NBA. And as I’ve retreated from uniform-wearing to uniform-watching, I’ve begun to understand what people don’t like about the NBA. Most notably, that NBA players don’t appear to be having any fun.
When most NBA players score, they act like the basket was the expected outcome, not a possible one. When they get called for a foul, they moan as if it is inconceivable that they could have erred, even as a replay shows them trying for a crude amputation of another man’s arm. And when they play, they do it selfishly, spending most of their time clearing the floor so one lanky guy who can’t spell “undergraduate degree” can take an ill-timed shot over another lanky guy who can’t read “undergraduate degree”.
Suffice to say, professional basketball has an image problem.
Enter the cure: the FIBA World Championship.
The basketball world championship is played every four years, much like the World Cup or the Olympics. This year, the tournament – which pitted 24 teams from all six serviceable continents – was held in Turkey. The American team won, thanks in large part to the play of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Lamar Kardashian. Notable American absences included 2008 Olympians Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade.
The lack of American starpower led to less American interest in the tournament, but that didn’t stop ESPN from televising all of the American games. Nor did it stop ESPN from not televising any of the other teams’ games.
This lack of coverage was a mistake, assuming that profit is the motivation for televising anything. Sports fans need to see how teams from the rest of the world play basketball, because they would like how it’s done.
Instead, unless they were willing to navigate the labyrinth of illegal online streaming**, American fans got to watch American players acting like the NBA players they are; when Andre Iguodala was called for what was obviously a foul in a quarterfinal win against Russia, he made a face like someone had pooped in his baklava and screamed, “That’s bullshit!” Standard behavior for a standard American basketball player. And so, the stereotype lives on in the minds of American fans – professional basketball players are complete assholes.
This stereotype is based on the fact that American fans see American basketball. While certain European stars have made headway in the NBA – Nowitzki, Kirilenko, Turkoglu, et. al. – the household names remain decidedly Anglo. (The names, if not the faces.) And even when European players do make it to the NBA, they’re often corrupted. Exhibit A: Vassilis Spanoulis, the only Greek player who’s played in the NBA, and the only Greek player who’s consistently selfish.
Not all professional basketball players – or their teams – behave this way. Witness the unbridled joy of the Argentine team as it watched countryman Luis Scola bull his way to a 30 point-per-game tournament average. Or the quiet satisfaction of Milos Teodosic, as he made a three-pointer with time expiring to send his Serbian team to the semifinals. Or the happiness derived by Turkish veteran Kerem Tunceri as he played in front of a partisan home crowd. This is basketball at its best: all the high-level skill of the NBA…plus the enthusiasm of college basketball.
Perhaps ESPN saw the danger in showing more of the FIBA World Championship. If fans knew that there are players in the world who pass the ball (gasp!), play together (eww!), listen to their coaches (pussies!) and who act as if playing basketball is kind of fun (the horror!), they might demand that NBA teams employ like-minded players, creating a better product, and, someday, moving the NBA up from its current spot: seventh place in the heart of the average American sports fan.***
Improve your product? And then make money from it? I know, sheer madness.
Alas, neither ESPN nor the NBA is going to change its ways anytime soon. The former makes money like a drug company during a swine flu scare, and the latter is too short-sighted to see its own flaws.
The NBA can’t – or won’t – take a lesson from the NFL, or from college football, or from college basketball. That lesson: Fans might say they want individual stars, but their money – and their interest – tells an opposing tale. The Michael Jordan/Allen Iverson, let’s-make-a-star-so-we-can-sell-jerseys business model hasn’t worked. People like teams. Which is why people like college sports and the NFL more than they like the NBA.
Individuals are unreliable; teams will stick around.
It doesn’t matter which sport fans choose to watch. They’re all circuses designed to take as much money as possible from those watching games.
But within my cold, dark, basketball-jaded heart lies an ember of affection for the sounds of basketball: the squeak of a sneaker, the swish of a net, and the roar of a crowd. Those sounds, and the images that come with them, have brought a certain measure of joy to my life. When basketball is played correctly, that joy is constantly available.
I’d like Americans to see some of that joy. The FIBA World Championship had plenty to offer. It makes me sad that no one saw it.****
It makes me sadder still that there isn’t much hope that anyone will see it anytime soon.
—-
*I used to be one of these players.
**FIBA.com purported to broadcast the games online; but that feature was “not available in your area.” Same goes for ESPN3, ESPN’s online arm, which, it seems, only has agreements with broadband companies whose CEOs double as their secretaries. (Catalina Cable TV Company, anyone?)
***This is based only on my opinion. But from my understanding of American interest, I have the NBA behind the NFL, college football, the MLB, college basketball, NASCAR and, depending whether a particular philanderer is playing, the PGA.
****It’s true that the World Championship games were played at times that are inconvenient for Americans. Turkey, it turns out, is not in the Eastern Time Zone. But a significant time difference didn’t stop people from watching the World Cup. And last time I checked, Mbombela Stadium wasn’t in Pittsburg. More important, Americans don’t even like soccer. (Rightfully so – it’s a flawed sport built to hide the players who aren’t any good, which is exactly why so many little girls play it. “Oh, Sally went a whole season without scoring? No problem – that’s what everyone did.”) Americans already like basketball. It seems logical to give them more of it – especially when that “more” is actually “better.”
For more from Paul, click some of the fun buttons below…
Past work on FlipCollective.com.
To follow him on Twitter.
To befriend him on Facebook.
Related Posts
I recently spent two weeks in Spain promoting the translation of my book, Can I Keep My Jersey? (Me Puedo Quedar La Camiseta?, thanks for asking.) On the trip, I shook hands, I signed copies of the book and I did interviews for newspapers and radio stations. I did all of those things, mostly, in Spanish. I speak Spanish with the same level ...
It used to be simple. You got the girl’s number, you called her, you hoped you’d get her voicemail, you waited for her to call back, you made a plan to get Italian. But now? Now, nobody uses the telephone for the “phone” part. So, unless the girl is not a girl at all – i.e. over 40 – you’re going to need to send a text message. ...
You are probably aware that there used to be a 17-year-old in Florida named Trayvon Martin and that there is no longer a 17-year-old in Florida named Trayvon Martin. You are probably also aware that many people – athletes and celebrities and politicians alike – have come out in condemnation of the circumstances surrounding Trayvon Martin’s...
When I was 18, I left my tiny Kansas hometown to play basketball at Iowa State University. During my college career, I cared so much about basketball that I was willing to put up with screaming coaches, early-morning practices, and the complete absence of any social life. I worried more than most CEOs. I slept less than most workaholics. To combat ...
Imagine this scenario, if you will: I’m standing in a room. I don’t know how I got into this room. There is another man in this room with me. The man tells me that if I stay in this room with him for the next 24 hours, if I follow his orders, if I put my absolute trust in his guidance, and if I tell him I like his haircut once every...
Comments