NBA degenerates into 'MTV' of sports
NBA Misnomer #1: "These are the best basketball players in the world."
A very good argument could be made that NBA players WERE the best in the world, but at present, any such claim would just be fallacious. "These players are the best showmen, dunkers and tattooed, media-quotable trash talkers in the world," would be a far more apt description for today's NBA.
The NBA version of hoops, not real Basketball, mind you, was exposed for the sham that it is at the Athens Olympics: a group of athletically gifted individuals devoid of team fundamentals, unable to compete with the best teams in the world. For many Basketball purists like myself it was a joyous moment, even though it cost the country of my citizenship a gold medal. More than half of the players on that Olympic team, guys like Lamar Odom and Stephon Marbury, bypassed most or all of their college careers for the money in the NBA and thus never learned the fundamentals of Basketball.
They learned to dunk by watching the ESPN highlight shows, but they never learned the finer points of the pick-and-roll from Bob Knight or the importance of team defense from Coach K. But no problem, because the NBA frowns on such boring team-oriented Basketball fundamentals and, in fact, has actually changed the rules to outlaw certain kinds of defense! For those of you who follow other sports, this would be tantamount to introducing a rule in soccer preventing goalkeepers from using their hands or discarding the offside rule.
You'd think that accomplished, millionaire NBA professionals, even young ones like LeBron James, would understand something about the nuances of Basketball and the usefulness of teamwork, defense, good passing and rebounding. And you'd think a few of them would even be able shoot the basketball. But no, the evidence was clear in Athens, the verdict is in.
"I think these guys play the game the way the game is supposed to be played," Allen Iverson admitted after losing to Puerto Rico in the Olympics.
"They don't play off a lot of their athletic ability. They think the game out. I think this game was good for kids to see ... it's how the game is supposed to be played," the Philadelphia 76ers'/Reebok poster boy added.
The irony is that the best international teams are coached by guys who are unabashed disciples of the greatest coaches in history -- all of them Americans: John Wooden, Dean Smith, Hank Iba, Coach K, Adolph Rupp and Bob Knight. That speaks volumes, more so because none of these legends would step foot on an NBA court, it would taint them, in the same way it would despoil a vestal virgin to hang out at a licentious brothel.
A few top college coaches have tried to move over to the NBA and failed miserably. One is Rick Pitino, multiple champion in the college ranks, utter failure in the NBA. Why? Because it's not Basketball, the way Rick knows it, it's apples and oranges.
Coddled NBA millionaires with $100 million contracts from Nike et al will not hear of discipline, let alone, God forbid, allow someone to actually coach them. This is why current NBA coaches are all "people persons", who have to get along with a special breed of social cretins with millions of dollars and "posses" behind them.
They have to be adept at ego-stroking, and they often have to bow to the wishes of the NBA politburo when it comes to playing time or even strategy when the NBA wants to promote a certain player. The US Olympic Committee also apparently bowed to the politburo and the shoe companies when it came to deciding which players would go to Athens and which would start and take all the shots -- much to the agony of U.S. coach Larry Brown.
It was just business as usual and we can thank NBA commissioner David Stern for that. But a big part of it must be blamed on the American public's appetite for such absurdity. These are not Basketball purists; they are the people who watch MTV, And 1, Big Time Wrestling, NASCAR crashes -- and like it! Sad to say, this is a huge market, so the shoe companies, the TV companies and other NBA clients "demand" high-flying dunks and high-scoring games.
Meanwhile, the playoffs roll on with the Finals in a few more weeks, but I for one won't be watching.
* Trivia Time: In which country was recently feted NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns born?
* They Said It: "What is so fascinating about sitting around watching a bunch of pituitary cases stuff a ball through a hoop?" --Woody Allen, comedian
"If I weren't earning US$30 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming." -- Charles Barkley, former NBA star.
"I learned to give him the ball" --Magic Johnson, after being asked what he had learned about the game of basketball by playing with the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
"I told him to take a picture of his testicles so he'd have something to remember them by if he ever took another shot like the last one." --Bob Knight, one of the best coaches in history, to a reporter after a question about a poor shot by one of Knight's players.
I can't really remember the names of the nightclubs that we went to. --Shaquille O'Neal, NBA showman, when asked whether he had visited the Parthenon during a trip to Greece.
I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok ..." --Shaquille O'Neal, sponsored by Pepsi and Reebok
* This week in history:
May 18, 2004 Randy Johnson, age 40, becomes the oldest pitcher in U.S. Major League Baseball history to throw a perfect game (no batters reach base via a hit, walk or error).
May 20, 1978 Mavis Hutchinson, 53, becomes the first woman to run across America. The 3,000-mile trek took 69 days.
May 21, 1966 American Cassius Clay (later to change his name to Muhammad Ali) knocks out Britain's Henry Cooper in the sixth round.
* Trivia answer:
South Africa. But he is a Canadian citizen and played his college ball at the University of Santa Clara in northern California. He is only the third player to win the MVP award who was born outside of the U.S. The other two were Tim Duncan (Bahamas) and Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria), but both of them, unlike Nash, had become U.S. citizens by the time they won their MVPs. That makes Nash the first non-U.S. citizen to win the award. --JP/Rich Simons