The NBA: Put a Fork In It
What I've been meaning to say in our various chit-chats during the past week, but never got around to, is this: I'm done with the NBA.
This was even before the (really more shocking than even I had anticipated) Friday night Pistons-Pacers brawl (video here). I have no problem with a good old-fashioned bench clearing brawl between players, but this was literally a riot.
posted by VMM at 3:16 PM
3 Comments:
This column articulates the case better than I could have:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/jeffri_chadiha/11/23/nba.stern/index.html
I tend to agree with the criticism of the game, but I blame the fans as much as the players. There has been an acceptance in all sport that fans can do very little wrong. I can understand (but not condone) a seething rage from players in all professional sport towards a subset of fans.
One good point I think the above article brings up is that NBA players seem to have little respect for the game-past, present or future. Hockey has the Montreal Canadians. Baseball has the (grrrr) Yankees. These are teams that all players dream of playing for. They are also teams that uphold a stature that might never condone a brawl like the one we saw last week.
I agree that the fans are much to blame, too. Personally, I believe that a player should have the right to have security eject any fan, the idea being that if you want to attract enough attention to yourself that your jibe can be heard by individual players, then you're are running the risk of them retaliating in a (non-violent) manner.
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