It is one day after LeBron James won the NBA title and. . . Oops! I mean since the Miami Heat won the NBA title and it feels like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Not only my shoulders but the shoulders of the entire country, nay! The entire world. For has not this been the Decade of James? Has not every human breath, endeavor, thought and deed been somehow related to Mr. James winning the first of several titles? Or, "rings," as is more appropriate.
The NBA sucks. It sucks for so many reasons but I shall just concentrate on two in this essay. (Right.)
First, the focus on individual accomplishment, deed, and word, has gotten absurd. Players do not win titles, TEAMS DO. What is a team? A team is a group of players who, under a coach, attempt to win games by best applying their skills thus scoring more points than their opponents. Which USED to mean TEAM DEFENSE was a premium. (More on that later). The reason for this is plain to see. The NBA has, as has virtually every other purveyor of popular cultural products "sold it's soul," to the commercial aspects of the business. Money first. Payola (Yes, I'm old). The indivdual player means more to the team than winning does. Certainly the salary and income of players matter more than winning, but, you may ask, isn't that always been so?
NO!
I will stand to say no, and no again.
I believe that we have broached into an era of unprecedented greed, both on the part of players and owners, and anyone else with a piece of the action. Any action. Sports, films, television, music (the most egregious offender). God, help me I will not spout the p.c. view that, well, it was always so. IT WAS NOT. There are a multitude of examples of this, but I will trust you to trust me. It was not.
And so, all of culture is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, increasingly lowering standards of taste, quality and preference. Hell on earth for a purist such as myself.
But focusing on the NBA, we see that out of this desire for the individual to be the center of activity, of focus and care, the concepts of team, and team defense are lost. They take up too much time and work. I think of Patrick Ewing. (the name alone brings feelings of disgust and revulsion). As a Knick's fan, I was swept up with joy when the Knicks won that lottery pick. "We are getting the next Bill Russell." I thought. Bill Russell? Don't make me laugh. What we got was a poorer version of Walt Bellamy. I would have preferred Walt Bellamy to Ewing.
The NBA ended with Ewing. All you have to do is watch any game he played. The ball went to Ewing and you could just go home right then and there, because you just saw all that was going to happen in the game. "But, you will shout, Ewing HAD to take all those shots, who else was on his team that could shoot?" After striking you with my fist, I would turn simply walk away, not dignifying that statement, wrong for so many reasons, and betraying and complete lack of understanding of the game of basketball and how it is won. Mr. Ewing, (the name is even hard to type) for a big man, in a era of not many really big men, barely averaged double digit rebounds. Are you kidding me? I am convinced had he scored fewer points but got more rebounds the Knicks would have won several (yes, SE-VE-RAL) championships. With whoever he played with.
But he didn't. He was the anti-Knick.
Points meant more than winning and that's for damn sure. Don't be fooled. Don't be fooled. Don't be fooled.
And so, the NBA sucks. No defense, and the celebration of the individual.
What used to be a beautiful sport has been reduced to the banal, the trivial, the bait of fools.
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