Last week, I attended the matchup between the Chicago Bulls and the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena in Oakland. It was the first basketball game I had been to all season.
Once upon a time, I was actually a basketball fanatic. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I was naturally a fan of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
It was an easy choice, as even though I lived in Upstate NY, I hated all sports organizations that resided there. In fact, I still do. Don't ask me why, because I'm not really sure.
Regardless, the main attraction to the game for me was the passion these guys played with. They lived and died by each game, and it showed in their emotions. Everyone wanted to "Be Like Mike," because of his dedication and talent, and the rest of the Bulls followed suit on a regular basis.
After Michael retired (the first time), things started to go downhill. I can't pinpoint any particulars that turned me off, but the NBA slowly started to become an afterthought, and my interest declined more and more each year. These days, I don't even watch unless it's June and the playoffs have a good storyline.
For instance, last season the Warriors were obviously the feel-good story of the playoffs. Seeing as I now live in the Bay Area, it was easy for me to "catch the fever," so to speak. I watched as they made their journey through the first round, before losing to the Jazz. It almost gave me a reason to start following basketball again—the passion they displayed during that time almost had me convinced.
Then, this season began.
I watched for a little while, as the Warriors lost the first few games of the season. The passion wasn't there, hence the poor play and uninteresting entertainment. I realize that they're very well in the hunt for the playoffs now, but the first few games of the season were enough to remind me why I don't like watching basketball anymore.
So, when I showed up to the Bulls-Warriors game last week, I was intrigued to see which team I felt the most compelled to cheer for. I was then surprised to see that, even being in Oakland with thousands of Warriors fans, I had no urge to cheer when they came back from 13 points down to make a game out of it. My allegiance was still very much with Chicago.
The problem was, even though the Bulls won that game, I didn't feel any kind of emotion coming from the team. How they won the game was purely from the talent they possess in their roster. If they were even close to playing with the kind of emotion that Jordan and Co. had, they might be right up there with the Pistons and Celtics this year.
This brings me to my point: The NBA as a whole is just not as interesting to watch anymore, and I think I know how to fix it.
82 games are too many for a regular season. The players get too tired, and each game can almost be deemed unimportant. With 82 games to play, who cares if you lose one when you're at the end of a road trip and the team is feeling slow? You can make it up on your next home-stand, right?
Why not make the regular season shorter? Let's say we made it a 43-game season. Each team would play everyone in their conference twice, and all teams in the opposite conference once. There would be twice as much time in between games, which would give the players a chance to rest up. Also, each game would be almost twice as important in reference to the playoff picture.
Teams with more energy and more reason to play their hearts out, might just make for an overall more exciting sport—don't you think?
Anyhow, that's just my humble opinion. Maybe somebody who can relate will convey my thoughts to the proper authorities. Until then, I'll be following the NFL's offseason. It's way more interesting.
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8 months ago
I was with you until you said to shorten the season then I completely stopped reading. You can't shorten the season because players don't give effort. There is too much history to change the league. The league's problem now is that money is the man objective and they do things like you see with the Chicago Bulls these days...not give effort, fake injuries and play for themselves. The Ben Gordon's the Loul Dengs turing a team that many follow into a joke because they want more money. It's a black eye and I hate to offend people but it's become too hip hop and unprofessional. When players can fire coaches and ruim teams you have problems. Anyways I could go on but really it's awful what the league has become and David Stern needs to fix it. I have to say I still watch the NBA but not at all with the pleasure I did when Michael was with the Bulls. That may have been the Golden age.
8 months ago
that was the hardest the bulls have played all season, and i applaud the effort. not only that, they were hugely depleted with gordan, hinrich and deng, arguably their three best players. so how did they win by "from the talent they possess in their roster"? you have to be kidding, right?
from 8 months ago
Are you saying that the rest of the roster isn't talented? They've got some serious depth... but they're still 20-31 right now. Explain that one...
from 8 months ago
no. i'm saying you don't win a game with the pure talent of your BENCH. you win it with their effort.
from 7 months ago
That's what I'm saying though. I went to that game, and I was not at all impressed with their effort. Sure, they won the game... but it was ugly, and none of them acted like they cared either way.
7 months ago
Chris this post is either a little bit crazy or totally out of left field. The Bulls were short their 3 best players for sure. They were way over-matched and were in the middle of a West Coast trip where they had just played the up-and-coming Blazers.
Plus, the start of the season games you watched of the Warriors were without Stack Jack. The Warriors are nothing without Captain Jack there. He's 110% emotion, that's part of why his past has so much trouble. You have one of the most exciting teams at your disposal there. I'm a lifelong Bulls fan and still will plan my night around a national Warriors game if I can.
Speaking of, you should see if you can get a copy of the Suns Vs Warriors game. It was probably the greatest game I've seen since MJ had the flu.
Plus every game right now in the West does mean something! Check out the standings, 1st place to 9th place is only a 4 game split. If you have a bad week you drop from first to out of the playoffs.
As an interesting side note, I know people who flew out from Chicago to the Bay Area to watch the Bulls/Warriors game (not that that has anything to do with this discussion).
I get your reasons for shortening the season, but I disagree. You want to see the big time teams in your conference at least 3 times a season, so you can gear up for the playoffs. It's also very very hard to build rivalries with only 2 games. And playing teams in the opposite conference once would be really hard on the fans. You'd only get a chance to see Kobe or LeBron or whoever you wanted once every 2 years??!
There's too many technicalities that would make this very difficult. But I do understand where you're coming from, a few years ago I wanted baseball to cut back their games a serious amount, they're just out of control.
from 7 months ago
Dave,
Thanks for the comment, and the feedback. It's always nice to see someone truly reading and trying to comprehend my columns. You're right ... this one kinda was borderline crazy. I really don't follow basketball as much as I used to, but I felt I was due for a non-Patriots article.
Maybe I'll take another crack at writing about the A's soon... last time I tried that, they traded one of there more prominent players the day after I wrote it.
On second thought, maybe I shouldn't.
Thanks again Dave... looking forward to reading more of your stuff on Bleacher Report.
from 7 months ago
Dave,
paragraphs one and two of your post put more succinctly what i was trying to explain. in other words: agreed. i can agree with most of the rest of your points regarding this article as well.
and now i'm back to the bulls game.
also, good riddance ben wallace. that man had no heart this year. maybe he'll turn it around in ohio. at least for a couple of games...
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