Why should I care about the NBA Finals?
Is the NBA’s product apathetic toward me?
The Boston Celtics have done it!
The once dominant franchise slumped into the dark depths of defeat to once again rise to the top of the National Basketball Association.
As a life long fan of the Celtics, I should have been immersed in the joys of a post championship hangover on the morning after. However, I was well rested, as I did not even watch past the midpoint of the third quarter of the championship-clinching Game 6.
In fact, throughout what I did witness of the game, my attention was dispersed between college baseball College World Series, TBS reruns of “The Office,” and what is quickly becoming my favorite book, God and Man at Yale
Although my favorite team emerged victorious, in what once was the focal point of my birthday celebrations as a youth (watching Jordan hoist trophy, after trophy, after trophy…) has become a mere afterthought. I pondered the underlying reasons to my recent apathy towards the David Stern-managed league and came to one conclusion. The NBA is apathetic towards me.
There is no effort to reach out to me as a young to middle-aged professional male with strong lifelong ties to an organization. (Please understand generalizations such as this are not made of malice or ill will. Assessments of a broad section of people are not reflections of all members of a race or class, but a statement of opinion regarding generalizations arrived at through casual observations of my brief 23 years of life.) This demographic has been ignored since the late 1990s.
Attention has, instead, been shifted to market the individual superstars of the league to the presumed fertile grounds of the foreign markets along with the often referred to “hip-hop demographic.”
The result: There are few, if any, players with which I can relate.
In a league that describes itself as superstar driven, I am unable to feel a connection to any of the players. This poses a major problem to my enjoyment of the NBA.
The appearances and attitudes of the players are unprofessional and uninviting to watch. I find a game featuring the Cavaliers and Delonte West or the Miami Heat and Jason Williams physically repulsive due to the massive amounts of “body art” covering what seems like almost every inch of their bodies. Not to be out done, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan must believe neither they nor their teammates ever commit a foul by the way they carry on after each whistle is blown.
On the other end, Lebron James’s and Kevin Garnett’s chest thumping is over the top and takes away any acknowledgment of a team concept making it nearly impossible for me to try and enjoy what is supposed to be a team sport. The product the NBA is providing for a consumer such as myself is uninviting, unappealing, and uninspiring to watch.
In the 80s and 90s, there were superstars to market, such as Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Patrick Ewing. However, these players were on great teams, as well. Each of these players had other big names to rely on in John Stockton, Clyde Drexler, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Robert Parrish (Ewing never really had any help and that’s why he never got a ring). Also, there were several other role players on those teams that were relatively well known.
On the other hand, by recent reports on sports networks, someone with little or no knowledge about the NBA might suppose Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen played a 3-on-3 tournament against Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, and Pau Gasol to determine the NBA Finals.
My point being there were great teams in what I consider the golden age of the NBA while that concept of team seems to be lost in today’s NBA.
In addition to the more emphasized role of the team in the 80s and 90s, the faces of those franchises, for the most part, carried themselves in a professional manner in the public eye. This includes appearance.
Some may challenge me for harboring racist attitudes. Others may challenge my regard for allowing players in the NBA the ability to express their individuality through tattoos and on-the-court antics. Some may even claim I am desperately holding on to what I felt was an idealistic period of professional basketball during my youth. I would only give the latter any credence.
Being a part of this beautiful and free country allows an organization such as the NBA to market and control its product as it chooses. By the same merit, I have the ability to determine the means by which I spend my recreational time, and at this point, the NBA seems to be apathetic to the use of that time.
Therefore, until I am able to watch a team emphasized sport played by men who conduct themselves in a professional manner, I will spend my evenings watching other athletic events I feel actually contain these desirable traits, or reading a book.
Oh yeah, go Celtics…
| 2.5 |
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I have to agree with you on this one. I’m not sure what it is, but I just have a hard time watching NBA basketball now days. Between the players attitudes, the controversy surrounding the refs it’s just too much, and it has left a bad taste in my mouth that I just cannot seem to shake.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:58 am
1. How can the NBA change what Delonte West and JWill have on their bodies, or what TD and Kobe do during the games? What, exactly, can a marketing department do to make the image less “hip-hop demographic” when the players themselves are attempting to fit into this culture?
2. Karl Malone has had three illigitimate children. One of which he has nothing to do with. I am pretty sure Robert Parish punched someone during a game (an act that got Artest all but crucified). Jordan wagged his toungue. Dikembe wagged his finger. I am not sure what this NBA of your youth is, but when I was watching it was just as brash and unsportsmanlike at times as this one. Besides, KG and LeBron are known to be good sprotsman. And TD?! He is known to be so nice he is actually criticized for it. Oh, and isolating the superstars so that when two good teams play THE ONE WITH THE BETTER PLAYER WINS is how Bird beat Majic, and then vice versa, and how MJ set up a dynasty. I say the Celtics played better team ball this year than all those teams, except maybe the first Bulls championship season. I mean, hello, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, PJ Brown, and Leon Powe - all of these players were, at differnt times in the series, the best players on the floor for small stretches for Boston. Bill Simmons agrees with me.
3. These playoffs was amazing. LeBron nearly willed his team to victory over the eventual champs, the Celts(who again only won by playing the team ball you say is missing). CP3 arrived as the next level, next teir, next better-than-Isaiah point guard. KG played defense so intensely that it forced Paul Pierce to play D, and in my opinion led to Pierce outplaying Kobe and LeBron and earning the MVP. Demographic schemographic, no matter who you are if your a basketball fan these playoffs were enjoyable.
No beers will be bought today, unless you want to discuss this over one.