Every reserve who ever suited up in the NBA thought he deserved more time on the court. You wouldn't want a player on your team who didn't burn to contribute more. But in the past, the focus was on winning, not self-promotion. Today's NBA markets the game like a Hollywood movie with attention lavished on individual stars. There is no shame in the game today. Players feel entitled to put themselves first and right-minded guys lack the nerve to police this thinking in the locker room.
- Brian Meehan
I actually tried to watch the NBA All-Star game last night, but in the end I just couldn't do it. As a kid, I adored the game of basketball. I may have grown up in the State of Hockey, but I was a first-class gym rats My dream was not to make it to the NHL, but to get a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina. I had it bad, but at least Mom and Dad seldom ever had to wonder where I was. Sadly, I was afflicted with "White Man's Disease", and there was no cure. I was short (6'), slow, and you'd need an electron microscope to measure my vertical jump.
With each passing year, though, I find myself increasingly estranged from the game I once adored. Basketball at it's core is a team game, but when was the last time you heard an NBA star defer to the success of his team ("Bob, I'd rather score 15 and win than 40 and lose.")? NBA basketball has become less about team success than the mzximization of individual marketing opportunities ("What do you mean you don't have a signature shoe deal?").
The Blazers just welcomed three fine young men and two former All-Stars to the fold, but instead of excitement, we hear complaining.
One of the great team games has been perverted into the world's most grotesque me game. And nobody even feels embarrassed about it. Over time, this mentality will ruin the NBA as it nearly severed one of the closest fan-franchise bonds in Portland.
We know all about me guys here. We have witnessed what happens when a franchise treads heavily down that path. I don't care how talented the players, nobody wants to watch malcontents who don't cherish the privilege of playing a kid's game for a fortune.
NBA players should wake every day and thank their lucky stars whether they are playing 35 minutes or five. Imagine if they really had to work for a living or look for a job in this stalled economy. I don't have any sympathy for spoiled millionaires who pout on the bench.
You know, I work 45-55 hours a week for what amounts to "walking around money" for an NBA player. Would I trade places? Would I be willing to sit on the end of an NBA bench and be little more than practice fodder? HELL YES, I would (unless we're talking about the Clippers). I wonder how most of these spoiled, spoon-fed morons would handle life in the real world? You know; 8-5, Monday-Friday?
This is not the game I grew up worshiping. The bling, the flash, the emphasis on the invididual over the team, the shoe contracts and other sundry endorsements- none of those things have ANYTHING to do with basketball. The problem, of course, is that society celebrates the individual over the group. After all, what do you see on SportsCenter? It's not the little things that make a basketball team victorious. No, it's the slam dunks and the chest-thumping that go along with it. It's tiresome, it's insulting, and I'm growing progressively more disillusioned with the game.
NBA players in general are in terrible need of a reality check. Playing basketball is not their birthright. They are merely incredibly fortunate and tremendously gifted athletes who have found someone willing to pay them obscene sums of money to play a kid's game. Perhaps if some of these idiots had to sell copiers for a living they'd at least have something closer to a grip on reality.
