Stop Asking What Sports Benefit from the NBA Lockout; Nobody Does
A first love is irreplaceable. You will probably love again, but it's just not the same; it can't be the same.
There's a feeling when you realize you are in love for the first time that engulfs you. A first love sends tingles down your spine and into your soul in a way that cannot ever, no matter how hard you try, be recreated.
For millions of sports fans, that first love is, was and always will be basketball.
Specifically, that first love is professional basketball, and as the days grow longer and longer without that first love, it gets harder and harder for those fans to feel whole again.
Fans don't care about 50 percent or 53 percent. Fans don't care about a $58 million cap or a $48 million cap. They care about the game. Fans love the game.
But it's gone, at least for right now. Even if a deal is signed today, we've already missed part of the season and we will already miss a lot more.
That time is gone, but the love is not, which is why it pains me, or anyone who really understands what that love of a sport can feel like, when people try to figure out what other sports will benefit from a lost NBA season.
Nobody benefits. In fact, we all suffer. Even those of us who just follow the NBA on the fringes, with the occasional in-market game and highlights around the league. American sports without professional basketball isn't the same. There is a piece missing, and trying to fill that hole with another sport does not work.
The fact is, the NBA isn't dead, it's just on hiatus, so it's not like millions of NBA fans suddenly have to fill the basketball void in their hearts (or on their TV schedule) on a permanent basis. Most likely, the NBA will miss a few months, giving fans a chance to catch up on old episodes of The Wire and Treme (I just finished the second season and it's mind-blowingly well constructed).
It's not to say that NBA fans won't pass the time watching another sport, but to suggest that other sports will benefit in the long term by the NBA's absence is incredibly myopic. Fans love what they love.
Besides, the NBA is not gone. And even the worst-case scenario that a full season could be lost (a scenario that looks extremely unlikely), it doesn't mean that true NBA fans will give up on the league and suddenly start watching soccer.
The MLS is the league I've heard most associated with the idea of "benefiting" from no NBA. The MLS is currently in the playoffs, meaning that the games matter more, there's always a winner and the level of play is at its best.
Some people I've spoken with assume that because of the free-flowing nature of basketball, those fans might be attracted to soccer. It's ridiculous.
There is more scoring in the NBA than any other sport. Heck, there's more scoring in the NBA than all the other sports, combined. While both games are free flowing, the flow on a basketball court in four 12-minute quarters is completely different than how a soccer match flows over two 45-minute halves.
Don't misinterpret my point: I know a lot of basketball fans who also like soccer. This is not to say that people can't love both sports, but to think an NBA fan would suddenly take to watching American soccer just because their league isn't playing makes far too many assumptions about people who love basketball, and American sports sensibilities in general.
Remember, we are not really talking about the causal sports fan. The NBA is going to have a huge problem trying to bring the casual sports fan back to their game because those fans are already watching everything else even when the NBA is playing. Casual fans don't need to fill a void in their schedule, in their hearts, because the void doesn't even exist.
Die-hard NBA fans love what: basketball. So it stands to reason, in some people's minds, that they'll fill a void with the college game.
False.
Most NBA fans I know hate (read: HATE) the college game. Most NBA fans I know would rather watch a European league exhibition match on a pixellated online feed than sit down and enjoy March Madness.
Both sports are called basketball, sure, but the ball is different, the lines on the court are different, the clock is different, the rules are different and, if you ask most NBA fans I know, the quality of play is so different, the college game is almost unwatchable.
Most NBA fans I know are basketball purists (read: snobs) who don't care about the fanfare and excitement that surrounds the college game.
College viewers get so distracted by rabid fans with their faces painted jumping up and down for 40 minutes and Dick Vitale talking about diapers that they (read: we) excuse the fact that most players can't shoot, aren't terribly athletic and don't play as sophisticated a game as the professionals.
College fans watch kids who play for the love of the game. NBA fans watch elite professionals at the pinnacle of their craft. People can like both, and some can even love one and like the other, but I'm not sure if you love one, it's possible to love both.
After those two, does it even make sense to still entertain the notion that anything can fill the NBA void on a nightly basis? Hockey? Will NBA fans suddenly start watching more hockey? Please.
We love what we love, and it's really hard for that to change. If you and your spouse got separated, you might test the waters, catch a soccer match or watch two college teams play on an aircraft carrier, but if you know in your heart that you will get back together at some point, you're not really looking for a replacement.
The NBA didn't die, so stop trying to figure out what could replace it.
