Why I Hate The NBA

It was 2004. The Minnesota Timberwolves were playing the Denver Nuggets at the Target Center. I was there. The crowd noise was deafening. The intensity was over the top. The Wolves had never won a playoff series before that night, but then they absolutely piss pounded the Nuggets to advance to the Western Conference Finals. It's a great sports memory from my childhood, but there's a very sad note attached to it. This would be the last game that I would attend and actually be into an NBA game.

Don't get me wrong, I've attended a couple Wolves games over the past couple of years. There was the game where the Wolves beat the Lakers and my hall got to have their picture taken on the court. Then, there was the game where I venomously cheered for the Miami Heat to beat the Wolves so that they could get a better draft pick and not draft J.J. Reddick. But, since that playoff game, I haven't been balls-to-the-walls at NBA games like I was when I was a kid. Why is this?

Well, for starters, America loves violence with their sports. The NBA has none. There's no animosity that you see in other sports. In football, it's a common occurrence for someone to badmouth the other team. As a matter of fact, some players do it every week. In hockey, a guy can literally fight another guy and he gets put on timeout for 5 minutes. In the NBA, a whole bunch of people go right up to each other...and fist bump, chest bump, take a picture with an air camera, and then hug. I want to see someone legitimately hate someone in the NBA, but everyone is way too friendly.

I also think that there are way too many games in the NBA schedule. You can use the MLB schedule as a counter argument, but since the Twins had to go to a 163rd game (for the chance to play the Yankees AND the umpires!) I'm going to say it's just right. There is no reason to watch a November NBA game, which leads me into my next reason.

Nobody cares until April. The players don't even care. Even right before the playoffs start in an incredibly intense game the players are still walking up and down the court, not moving around on offense, and just sticking their hand up for the basketball. This makes for an incredibly boring game.

Finally, the personalities in the NBA are not likable. You may counter with Dwight Howard and Dwayne Wade, but I counter with the biggest asshole in pro sports today: Kobe Bryant. Kobe comes into the game, hogs the ball, and hauls up 90 shots a game, which teaches our young basketball players great team attributes. NOT! This has even permeated down to the high school level where prep hotshots have decided to skip college basketball and play professionally in Europe for a year so they can get paid. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there is a prospect that is forgoing his junior year of high school to do this.

I'm incredibly jaded with the NBA, and maybe that's why I've developed a passion for college basketball over the NBA. It's much more intense, there's more strategy involved, and the players actually care about their games. This may be because about 90% of the players are playing their last game when they walk off the court as a senior. It's easier to root for athletes like that than it is for say, Kobe Bryant.