When I was younger, I used to watch the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan dominate almost every team in the NBA. In my grade school, there was a large following of Chicago fans and our gym classes often wound up with the class broken in teams of Bulls fans and Knicks fans – we’d use these teams as the basis for all sports, not just basketball. It was fun.
Then when I got into high school I was so occupied with playing football and wrestling that I really didn’t have the time to watch much basketball. As a result, I wound up not watching any NBA games for a number of years – even though college and graduate school. In 2006, when I was finished going to school full-time, I took fleeting glances at the NBA to see if it could hold my interest and I was completely unimpressed. Aside from the fact that everyone is absolutely gaga for Lebron James (which is extremely annoying), I believe that the most disenfranchising aspect of the NBA is the utter lack of maturity among some of the players.
You only need to look at the ridiculous case of the Wizards players flipping guns around in the locker room for the perfect example of what I’m talking about. Here’s some stupidity from the linked article:
The New York Post has reported that Arenas and Crittenton drew guns on each other. When asked about that Saturday, Arenas said: “I can’t speak on that. But if you know me, you’ve been here, I’ve never did anything [involving] violence. Anything I do is funny — well, it’s funny to me.”
You’ve never “did anything violence?” Really? Are you sure that you’ve never “done anything violent?” Okay, I’m not the grammar police, but what about the content? Is it funny to flip a gun around in the locker room? Seems to me that’s about as funny as hosting dog fights…
At some point when I was in college I heard the NBA referred to as “Ghetto Ball.” I didn’t believe this adjective until I began to see this type of stuff: players jumping in the crowds to fight fans, uncontrollable marijuana use among players, children calling themselves “King” in high school because they’re a big fish in a small pond, players pulling guns on one another, etc. I don’t have time for this type of immaturity.
The other problem that I have with watching the NBA is that I’m not that into the Chicago Bulls any more. I’d rather root for the home team. However, the home team in New Jersey is the Nets and, well, they suck. On top of them sucking, this is a team that is trying its damnedest to get into Brooklyn in the Atlantic Yards development. While I think it would be cool to have a Brooklyn-based NBA team, if it means losing the New Jersey franchise, then that’s not good for our state, is it?
Anyway, until the NBA cleans its act up, I’ll stick to watching Monmouth University’s Hawks. Sure, it’s a different level of competition, but at least I know the kids don’t have guns flying around nor are they looking to get into a fist fight with the fans!
The 1990s with Jordan and the Bulls were great. I remember it almost like it was yesterday. Now sadly, such references are so far away that I now sound like an old guy to anyone who came around after that time period. Even sadder is that the Bulls really haven’t done anything memorable (minus last years post season series against Boston) since Jordan’s final shot against Utah in ’98.
I would be really interested in you doing a piece on the blog about journalism these days. I know your take in general on the topic from chatting with you, but someone intelligent that knows how to write (you) really needs to do a blog entry on this. The New York Post, one of the nation’s most respected news sources, claimed Javaris and Gilbert “drew guns at each other” and came up with an apology in the corner box on page 9 a couple of days later saying the report was wrong after several credible sources (and eventually NBA Security) said nothing like this happened. Isn’t today’s world of journalism absolutely ridiculous?! Nonetheless, this is no excuse for how the players acted, as bringing 3 guns to a workplace is certainly not defending your 122 million dollar contract (Gilbert Arenas). As far as the Nets go, if you haven’t heard they were bought by a Russian millionaire (who’s being described everywhere as the Russian version of Mark Cuban) and people are already making the “New Jersey Nyets” jokes. The good news is tons of money will go into the club meaning they will pursue “King” LeBron (I hate this LeBron mania as much as you do! The kid hasn’t even won a championship ring yet!) and a few big names. Plus doesn’t seem like they’re going to Brooklyn for another year so maybe you can get into it 🙂
Hi Eddie. I’ve written a bunch of articles about the sorry state of journalism and the media in general. Frankly, all of the media sucks. Generally, I use the New York Times and FOX News as my sources (have to balance the left with the right). And speaking of the New York Times, they have the best news website on the internet – bar none.
Here is their article on the same topic:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/sports/basketball/07arenas.html