Jason Whitlock, over at ESPN is not a fan of outgoing NBA Commish David Stern- he is, a good writer, so I tend to read his stuff when I happen across it, because well, it's well-written for one and for two, it tends to be different from the usual 'serious' sports writing that you come across- it's not as sugar-coated as some of Rick Reilly's stuff- it's not as stilted or as obsessed with the Celtics as Bill Simmons is. And his criticisms of Stern are well founded, I think.
I say, 'I think' because really, I don't care that much about the NBA. I try too, really I do- but it just doesn't work. If I want to watch basketball, I'll watch college basketball because that, to me, is where the sport really comes into its own- and I'm saying this as a person who couldn't stand playing basketball when I was a kid and would probably have to think about it when faced with the choice of say, a trip to the Dentist or a pick-up game of three on three on a basketball court.
Putting David Stern on the same level as Pete Rozelle? Yeah, Whitlock nails this one. Stern isn't even close- given the fact that, unlike football, basketball really can be played by anyone with the time or the patience to pick up a ball- even people in wheelchairs, it's somewhat ridiculous that the NFL is five times more popular than the NBA. There's a universality to basketball- something broadly democratic in it's concept that should really appeal to the American spirit. It's why basketball has a more global presence than American football does. It's not a fundamentally weird idea that the rest of the world doesn't need a funny video or a manual to grasp- pick up ball, dribble it down court, shoot it into the hoop.
Do I know anything about the racial dynamics of all of this? No, I really don't. I could buy into the notion that maybe the arrival of Larry Bird made the NBA more 'palatable' and comfortable for white America, but how do you explain people like Bill Walton? If you think that the perception of the NBA having a 'drug problem' was racial- I'll grant you that the 'sports media' such as it is turned a blind eye to doping in baseball and football but when you have people like Len Bias dying so tragically- it's hard to argue that the problem was overblown somehow.
Who knows- maybe there's something I'm just missing about basketball, but the few times I've sat down to watch an NBA game, it just seems too clean, too perfect and too produced and professional by half. The college game is more scrappy and authentic to me- and the season, dear Lord the NBA season just seems to go on forever and ever and ever and the playoffs- God, don't even get me started on the playoffs. They last forever too!
Shit, the NCAA Tournament is probably more entertaining than the NBA playoffs from where I'm sitting. The glorious thing about college is that every single year, there's always some giant killer that comes out of nowhere and upsets someone that everyone is convinced is a sure thing to go deep in the Big Dance. We haven't had a 16 seed over a 1 seed yet, but odds are, we will one of these times and that will be in every sports montage until the end of time.
But probably one of the most interesting statements came from the comments- which on ESPN range from the hysterical to the laughable to the 'you must live in your parents' basement and wear a tinfoil hat'- but occasionally something intriguing pops up and the best epitaph for Stern's tenure was described (more or less) thusly: He's retiring with franchises in Memphis, Oklahoma City and Charlotte, but none in Seattle, Kansas City or San Diego.
Now that intrigued me. Don't me wrong: I understand Charlotte- that's a big media market down there, but the presence of the NBA in small markets like Memphis and OKC- especially given their proximity to New Orleans and Dallas, geographically speaking is something of a head scratcher. One of the teams I genuinely miss is the Seattle Supersonics. I don't actually know if I ever saw them play a single game, but one of the few players not on the Chicago Bulls back in the day whose name I actually knew: Shawn Kemp. And it has been puzzling to me why KC doesn't have an NBA franchise- I mean, I know they used too, but if you're going to go into a small market, why not go to the one that originated the game itself? #JustSayin
I don't know what the future of the NBA is, going forward. I know that right now, it doesn't have my attention. I'm more likely to sit down and watch an MLS, NHL or even MLB game than an NBA game. Shit, I'll probably watch the Masters Tournament before I watch the NBA playoffs. I'm sure it's making money hand over fist and will continue to surge forward with the fans they do have and maybe that will work for them- but let's not act like Stern somehow transformed the league into something amazing. He didn't. The league is solvent and prosperous and that's the bare minimum you should expect from an outgoing commissioner- that they should leave things better than how they found him, but challenging the NFL for world domination? Please. Don't make me laugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment