I am going to address some of the other posts but I think the exact opposite is true. Basketball has never been a non contact sport. It is not a collision sport a la football or hockey but the expectation of NO contact whatsoever is one of the things that made the game so much difficult to officiate. The oldest play in the game is the pick and roll. If basketball was really a no contact sport, Karl Malone would have really been a real mailman instead of a Hall of Famer.

The answer is really simple. The popularity of the NBA during the time of Bird, Magic and then Jordan was the exception for the league, not the rule. The NBA without Bird, Magic, and Jordan has never been popular.

It is interesting that you think the NBA has done a terrible job of marketing his stars. I have heard interviews with David Stern over the last couple of years in which he basically said the league is now more interested in marketing teams than stars. I guess he heard the criticism about the league being too focused on its stars instead of entire teams.

The NBA fascinates me. I have no desire to watch a regular season game, yet I follow the league throughout the season relatively closely. All the stars and 'plots' that develop are really larger than life; it's like a soap opera.

I do like watching NBA playoff games, but unfortunately they collide with the NHL and I really don't have that much time to watch sports anymore so I have to be choosy. I don't think I watched more than 2 games of last years playoffs, whereas 5 years ago I would have watched about 15.

It was never a zero contact sport, but there were really very few places where contact was allowed. Setting picks, boxing out for a rebound, and post play were about it. Even those had some pretty strong limits. Now you get collisions under the basket with no fouls called. Most shots have the shooter bouncing off of two or three guys, and that shooter generally has to take his last 3 or 4 steps with both arms hugging the ball because of all the contact he gets before even leaving the ground.

While I'm no fan of Shaq's...and I usually found myself being the only detractor in the room. I think this describes the early year's Shaq. About six or seven years back, I became a believer that he had actually developed his footwork and movement near the basket to the point that he was actually as good as his press. I whole heartedly agree with the rest of your post.

Rainmaker's list resonated with me to a degree. The same issues affect the NHL too. The seasons are too long -- or at least mostly meaningless. The only real drama at end is between the 15th to 19th best teams in the league fighting it out for mediocrity to see who can stumble over .500 and make the playoffs and most likely be vanished in short order.

Is it just me or are these two leagues ripe for a relegation system? Both leagues seem to be largely built around models that make dramatic improvements less likely than certainly in the NFL and to a certain degree MLB. The Celtics turnaround when they went out and grabbed Garnett and Allen is the exception to the rule, and even that required a certain amount of clearing of the roster and phoning it in to get that done.

It's unfortunate for both leagues that the playoffs are starting now and quite honestly both playoffs are pretty much irrelevant for another month. Wake me up in early or mid-May and I'll try to care.

Two big differences IMO.

One is the fact that there is way more parity in the NHL (or at least it seems that way, there are usually only 5 or 6 teams absolutely out of it with a couple of weeks left) In the NBA, other than the Suns which team that missed the playoffs had a realistic shot of going anywhere in the postseason? Who cares about the race for the 8th seed when that team is basically sweep fodder for the Lakers or the Cavs?

Secondly, hockey games are at least close and hard fought for the most part. Too many NBA games are over by the third quarter, sometimes halftime. Just feels like NHL regular season games mean a lot more... and because most teams have a shot at the playoffs, they do. It was clear 5 games into the Clippers season that they might as well not even show up for the rest of the year.

I don't follow the NBA closely, but raised my brow last year was the dramatic difference that home court seemed to make.

I think it was the first round match-up between Boston and Atlanta where the home team not only won every game, but essentially blew the other team out.

It just seemed... odd to me.

i hate how the media circle jerk around the big stars of the game and ignore and dismiss the other players on thier teams. all they care about and show highlights are scoring and dunks.

I did some kind of comparison once, going from memory I think the home team wins about 53% of the time in the MLB, 60-65% in the NFL, and just over 70% in the NBA.

On the other hand now that I have the MSG channel now I watched probably the last 10 or so Knicks games of the season. Maybe it was Walt Frazier saying the same catch phrases about 10 times a game that sucked me in. But yes, they are just god awful.

I am all for this though I still would like to see teams play each other at least twice.


I am not sure I completely agree here. I think there is enough talent to fill a ten man rotation. I do agree that certain cities just are not NBA towns.


Complaints of tanking only happen when there is a perceived all time great at the top of the draft. I have heard no discussion this year that the Kings tanked the season to get Blake Griffin. They were just a bad team. If it must change, then I say go with the Mike Greenberg idea. Give the most ping pong balls to the team with the best non playoff record.

The NBA needs to clarify the rules. Traveling should not take 3/4 quarters of a page in the rule book to explain.


Uh no


The NBA has tried its best to forget those rivalries. Note all the rule changes for physical defense and fighting.;)

Raises hands. I was reminded of this again when I watched White Men Can't Jump recently: "rather look good losing than look bad winning". I still contend that it goes back to the "Be Like Mike" syndrome and also admit that it can be a cultural gap as well.

lol@ people who bring up "highlight shows" and "highlights culture".

What do you expect to see on Sportscenter? A minutes worth of two-hand chest passes?

The NBA is fine and the reason the game has changed is players who are 6'8 normally would have been playing power forward instead of shooting guard, swing forward... the game evolved.

maybe its all perception.
with a 1% increase in a horrible down economy maybe its more popular than we think;just with a different market.

Sports Media Watch: NBA attendance up slightly.

I think you are going to see teams really hurting next year. Was listening to Bill Simmons' podcast the other day and he mentioned that people he talked to that were in the know said season ticket renewals were at about half of what they were this time last year. The salary cap is also going to go down, which I don't think they ever planned on. Some teams are going to be giving players away. They need to find a way to make trades about its effects on the court, and not on the pocketbook/salary cap.

I've actually been watching more basketball this year, which is funny given that the Warriors, whom I root for, were terrible. I think that the play overall has been getting better than it was a few years back. I feel myself being excited for the start of the playoffs. I do get annoyed with the NBA is the length it takes to complete a playoff series, though. Also, the biggest problem they have is the officiating. It's absolutely awful. If they don't fix that somehow, the league is going to suffer greatly.

Part of that is due to promotions and ticket price reductions I think. I remember hearing some talk on the radio about that. One guy said he was shocked about attendence, the other guy pointed out a slew of promos that was leading to the figures.

Whoever said the NBA needs to call the game tougher is correct. You have to call the game early and call it consistently through the game. Look back at Game 6 of the '88 Finals. Kareem gets a call against Lambeer and sinks both free throws. There was essentially no time left on the clock. Would that happen today? No, they'd "let them play."

But ultimately, I get frustrated with a call in the first minute that gets called, but the same foul does not get called with 15 seconds left in a 2 point game. If it is a foul early, it is a foul late. Also, quit favoring the stars. Part of the reason why stars remain stars is they are playing by a different set of rules. Make everyone play by the same set of rules.

Here's the top five professional team sports in America right now

The Top Two: The Powerhouses
Football
Baseball

The High Level, but Not Top Two:
Basketball

Mid Level/Regional
Soccer
Hockey

(don't laugh, Soccer's average attendance has been close to if not more then Hockey's the last few years)

Football and Baseball have pretty much a stranglehold on the attention. To the most part , they have their own seasons (yes, Football starts mid-september, but 75% of MLB is eliminated at that point, so it's not as bad).

The other three sports in the "Big Five" Cross both of these time frames (Basketball/Hockey starts in Football Season and end in Baseball Season, and Soccer is vice versa (Starts in Baseball, and goes through to Football season)

So, at no point really does Basketball have a chance to get traction, except a bit around the All-Star break, when it doesn't have to deal with either of the Big Two.

Hockey and Soccer are always "Second Thoughts" when it comes to the Sports Mind.

It's a big misleading since a lot of season tickets had to be renewed back in April 2008. I think you're going to see a major drop this year. When I called to renew my tickets I asked about my chances to move up next year and they said it was really good since they were not doing well with renewals (they usually are 95% but expecting only 80% this year).

The biggest difference I've noticed is the lack of luxury boxes. Half of them are empty which is not normal. The Bulls have also been running a buy-1-get-1-free promotion for most of the season. They are not raising ticket prices next year for the first time that I can remember.

Bill Simmons wrote a real good column on this a few weeks back. Now I know some people don't like his style, but he's actually pretty tight with a lot of people in the NBA. It gives a real good look at the current financial state of the NBA.

The Sports Guy: Bill Simmons Welcome to the No Benjamins Association - ESPN Page 2

Every post player in the history of the NBA pushes to some degree to get positioning. It has been many, many decades since post players only got position with their legwork. Shaq is perhaps the functionally strongest player ever to play in the NBA. What do you expect him to do, politely ask players to get out the way instead of earning it?

Put Shaq in the 80s or 70s and his game is the exact same, only he would of course be even more dominate with the smaller players. If you hate Shaq's game and accomplishments then you hate strong post play. Perhaps 1930s basketball would be more to your liking?

I just don't think that would fly in the U.S. Some of the teams have trouble drawing fans and I can't imagine what it would turn into if they were delegated to the minor leagues. A lot of these small market teams sell their tickets partly due to people wanting to see the stars from throughout the league. I know when the Bulls sucked I still loved going to see Lebron or Kobe play.

Shaq would have fouled out very quickly with his style of play in the 70s or 80s. Back then, you knock a guy over, you get called for a foul.

I agree about the post player comments, like Shaq. I grew up watching Wilt and Jabbar, and haven't seen much difference between the newer post players and them. It's the one-on-one (or one-on-many) plays that are stupid.

He also has the opposite problem. I remember his college coach advocating for the use of pull-away uniform segments, because defenses could mug Shaq, and the refs could never see it, because Shaq wouldn't budge an inch.

I expect him to go around a defender standing in the way, or shoot over him, like basketball was intended to be.

Probably more because the leagues have grown too much through expansion than any other reason.

Kareem and Wilt never backed down defenders?

Maybe that would be amore entertaining brand of basketball, but you can't claim it's a new development.

I live oversees and I find this NBA post-season so compelling that I'm thinking about shelling out for the league pass (or whatever it's called), since I don't get shit on TV.

I agree that the NBA needs a shorter season and fewer teams. Let's hope they're willing to think outside the box.

The NHL will have one of its problems fixed as there is no way they don't lose a good chunk of teams soon.

The NBA & David Stern can go fuck themselves.

(former Sonics fan speaking here)

Though the shorter season would be good it will never happen.

Foz,

What no NASCAR. ;)

He did say team sports :)

Ya think?

From tonight's Atl-Mia recap
the Hawks got to play in front of a raucous crowd that cheered their every move. They even brought out Atlanta-native T.I. to make the player introductions, the rap star still a month away from reporting to federal prison to serve his one-year-and-a-day sentence for pleading guilty to weapons charges.

Does the playoff scheduling drive some of you away? It sucks that they have 2-3 days between each game.

I don't really follow the NBA, and I'm not really a basketball fan (though I was in the 80s), but I've caught some of the playoff games because, well, it's the playoffs.

Anyway, it seems to me like there's a lot of games, and a lot of teams involved. I honestly couldn't tell you all of the current matchups. Maybe that's a factor. Maybe not.

To put this into context, I'm just as ambivalent about baseball, but each autumn when the playoffs start I can name all the playoff teams and usually where each of their series currently stand. Conversely, I'm sure I could name correctly more of the teams in the NBA playoffs than the NHL playoffs.

I don't know where I'm going with this, but it's Friday, so give me a break. :D

I don't watch the NBA anymore, so I may be completely off-base on this one. However, I am a fan of college basketball. In college, the atmosphere just seems so more involved and thus the teams and players are as well. The defense in college can be full-court, a lot of trapping, man-to-man all the way out to half-court. When I watched the NBA, it always seemed like the offense consisted of some guy dribbling down the court at 3 miles per hour, he then passes it to the guy who was going to shoot (no matter what), everyone else would clear out, the shooter would attempt a turn-around jumper, miss, and you would rinse, lather, repeat at the opposite end.

I know this may not be true of the playoffs, but it also irritated me that the crowds had to be entertained between shots e.g. way too loud music being played as the point guard dribbled to the opposite end.

Based on my, admittedly minimal, experience watching the NBA this year....

It's easier with a smaller facility and a bunch of rowdy college kids to have a more involved feeling as opposed to a full sized arena where the best seats are really only affordable to businesses or fairly well off people - probably not the same level of rowdiness as college kids ;)


Just a product of the game - a kid playing on scholarship knowing this is the final four years of competitive basketball in his life will play full court defense for 30 games. A multi millionaire playing 82 games and pretty much thinking how he can get his prolong his career to get his next multi million dollar contract will not. See Rick Pitino and the Celtics.


Again, just how the league is. It's an individualistic team sport if that makes sense. The league markets it that way, the refs call the game differently for a select few individuals and the rules themselves essentially force the game to be a game of individual matchups on the floor. You also have to take into consideration that because of expansion there are far more players who are less capable than a teammate of doing something good with the ball - it's not like when Bird could pass to Ainge, DJ, Kevin or the Chief or Magic who had Worthy, Kareem, Michael Cooper and AC Green. Dwayne Wade has Mario Chalmers, Michael Beasley, Udonis Haslem and a gimpy Jermaine O'Neal - why shouldn't he just take the ball and try to go one on one any time he can - especially when he'll get the FTs to bail him out enough times to make it worth while?

The NBA is also the top 200 basketball players in the world. Pressing less talented players is effective because they are not as adept at handling that pressure. Pressing NBA calibre guards (besides JJ Reddick) would be incredibly stupid & ineffective.

I wish the NHL and NBA didn't screw with their playoff schedule. It should be really easy: play every other day. They either have a day off or travel day for those inbetween games. There's just too much that breaks up the series to get a rhythm.

Day 1: West Gm1, East Day off
Day 2: East Gm1, West Day off
Day 3: West Gm2, East Day off
Day 4: East Gm2, West Travel Day
Day 5: West Gm3, East Travel Day
Day 6: East Gm3, West Day off
Day 7: West Gm4, East Day off
...

Actually, if you wanted to, you could have 2 East and 2 West games for each day, that way you can do regional coverage or have the "premium" games on Network 1 while the secondary ones on Network 2.

SI

No one mentions that the NBA Playoffs are closer to the WWE when it comes to how scripted they are.

EDGY

Probably because nobody really believes that?

The NHL does a pretty good job on an every-other day schedule, as does the MLB (if not back-to-back, with a day off to travel).

Tell that to the Kings in 2002. I'm not saying games are completely thrown, but the NBA has a dubious history for officiating going in the favor of a team that is beneficial to the NBA's interests.

Heck, as a Bulls fan I'll admit that the league basically gave us the series against the Hornets in 1995.

1995? 2002? Hold a grudge much?

I think the NBA's biggest problem with the playoffs isn't that they're scripted, it's that the officiating is usually terrible at crucial points of the game, easily lending itself to that kind of talk.