The NBA vs. the NCAA: Which Provides the Better Fan Experience?

This article can also be found at North Station Sports.

Arguments provided by Nick Gelso and Mathew Golden.

THE NBA ALL THE WAY!

by Nick Gelso

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When I first started to really understand basketball, back in the early 1990s, I followed two teams. In the NBA it was, of course, the Boston Celtics, and in the NCAA I followed Christian Laettner and his Duke Blue Devils.

I recall, with excitement, Duke winning two national championships in the early '90s, led by Laettner (the buzzer-beater against Kentucky still gives me the chills). Duke's winning ways kind of satisfied my craving for the Celtics to win another title as they struggled through age and injury.
 
The NBA was always my basketball poison of choice because it was always appealing to me to be able to follow an NBA player through his entire career with one team.

Back then, it was not uncommon for one player to spend an entire career with the same team allowing that player to define his own "era."

With players like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Dr J, Michael Jordan, and Hakeem Olajuwan playing their entire career for (primarily) one team was exciting to me and (ultimately) made the NBA more appealing to me then college ball.
 
My argument was furthered when, following Laettner's going pro, the Blue Devils waited nearly 10 years to reclaim the national championship. While Laettner would go on to a lengthy pro basketball career, he never reclaimed the success he achieved in college.
 
Even as the Celtics struggled in the post-Larry Bird era, other teams went on to prominence and, again, I was able to follow players as they created dynastic championship runs.

As painful as it was to watch the Celtics struggle as their long-time rivals won multiple titles, I still got some satisfaction out of watching the Bulls ('90s), Lakers ('00s), San Antonio (late '90s/'00s) win multiple times. I think maybe I liked watching the teams struggle to stay on top of the pack—something today's Celtics are experiencing.
 
All in all, though the crowds are more raucous and intense, and I will tune in occasionally, I do have to say that the down falls of college basketball (e.g. inconsistencies in team success, too much three point shooting, players entering into the draft too early, etc) out way the perks.
 
I'm an NBA guy all the way!

 

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The NCAA

by Matt Golden

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ROCK CHALK JAY HAWK LET'S GO K U...As my boy Lee Corso says, "Not so fast!"

While the NBA has vastly superior athletes and players, the college game offers a better product. Here are my top 10 reasons college hoops are superior.

 

1. Coaches

You make a valid point about what the NBA use to be...a league where you can follow a player for an entire career. Free agency has largely eliminated this in the NBA. In college, the team is much more a function of the coach. All the great programs bring a coach to mind. Jim Boeheim, Coach K, Calhoun, Roy Williams, etc. etc.

 

2. Tradition

The other thing the major programs have that the NBA doesn't is the tradition and pageantry of the games. The songs and the stadiums and the bands...all next to impossible to reproduce outside of the atmosphere of 10,000 drunk college kids, which brings me to...

 

3. Student athlete

Ninety-nine percent of these player will never play in the NBA and they know it. They play their hearts out for the love of the game. And they are coachable.

 

4. Stadium

The atmosphere in the stadiums are so much better than your average nba game. The student sections living and dying with every free throw...it is exhilarating.

 

5. The pace

Games last two to two and a half hours. The TV timeouts are perfectly spaced out. Yes there are too many threes, but it is a much more motion-based offense than the NBA game. Defensively, you see a lot more pressing and inventive zones.

 

6. The bubble

The bubble leading up to Selection Sunday covers about a month from mid-February to Mid March. You have mid majors and middle of the road big conf schools. Great debate and it leads up to conference championships.

 

7. The bracket

Selection Sunday is so much fun. You get the bracket out. You join your dozen pools and waste a bunch of money. From Sunday to Thursday at noon, you have the perfect bracket...you can't lose...until...

 

8. The first two rounds

Upsets, Cinderella, four 12-hour days of bracket-busting action. David gets his shot at Goliath.

 

9. The Final Four

It is one-and-done. There is no margin for error. The teams are almost always packed with star players and coaches.

 

10. One shining moment

The ball is tipped, there you are, you're running for your life, you're a shooting star, through all the years, no one knows, just how hard you worked, but now it shows...

 

Don't get me wrong. I love the NBA, especially the playoffs. The season is extremely long, and I do get fatigued in the spring. Just get me to the playoffs already.

I love the seven-game series. The matchups and chess games that go on. It is much more a battle of wills and endurance than college.

But from a fan's perspective, watching on TV, who has to choose only one sport...it has to be college.

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Weigh in with your thoughts...the NCAA or the NBA?