The NBA can be really annoying to cover.
Am I breaking news here? The dreaded Discourse that follows the league is frequently contradictory: frustrating, often pathetic, myopic, way too nerdish and at the same time too dominated by former players who hate the current league. These competing elements battle for supremacy in the lowest common denominator Olympics.
Forget shot put! You’re going to watch internet nerd who thinks basketball is only good right now battle it out with former player who hates three point shots and wants to bring back Anthony Mason level goonery.
“Where is the middle ground?!”, he shouts as he writes yet another missive that contributes to said discourse. “When will the dumb madness and migraine inducing back and forth end?”
I’ve said this frequently on my podcast but it remains true. People think basketball was invented the day before they became a fan. That is true for everyone and it’s because the NBA is predominantly a sport that had very young fans. Hell, became a rabid NBA fan at the age of 10. The fact that I’m almost 50 makes me a relic in terms of an NBA fan and media member. My age is what gives me perspective but it also works against relating to the core audience of the league.
Therein lies the big issue. It’s not ex player versus analytic based person. It’s young versus old and that — my blog reading friends — makes us very uncomfortable. The new way versus the old way. The wave of the future versus being stuck in the past. It sucks because I’m old and I’m somehow still a fan after all these years.
The thing that makes us uneasy is as simple as it is frustrating. Whether you are a fan, media member or former player it is natural to sort of lose connection with the NBA. For whatever reason the course of age and fandom is to reject the modern advances of the game and it has always been true. When I was a teenager my dad used to complain about how the NBA wasn’t as good as it was in the 60’s and 70’s. The cycle of becoming attached to the era that you became a fan is real.
It comes for us all.
I get annoyed at a lot of things that are being done in the modern league. The preponderance of threes isn’t aesthetically pleasing to my eye. I hate how we have specialized ourselves into boxes and percentages (it’s the same gripe I have with strict music theory; It’s like learning stereo instructions). What the key is, however, for people like me and all the former players and fans who gripe about what we don’t like is to start focusing on what we DO like.
The easiest thing in the world is to be miserable. The hardest thing in the world is to remain a fan when your ‘era’ is gone because the kids that are playing now will never fit your ideal. Then you end up griping and making the kids who like the game now miserable and then literally no one is happy. Who does this benefit? Absolutely no one.
As a fellow old, might I suggest something to the players who cover the league right now? You don’t have to like the game. You don’t even have to like the players. However, do yourselves a favor and understand that you are making the kids who love the game now absolutely frustrated and constantly on the defensive. If you make the fans of today hate the players of the past they will never appreciate the things you did.
This in no way invalidates your issues with the league but … it’s not your league anymore. It’s not even my league. It’s the kids league and they like it as it is and that is the key point. We aren’t right for liking the NBA the way it was and thinking it should be that way NOW…all we are doing is making kids not appreciate the NBA as it was then. They won’t love our memories as much as they love their now. It is time to just accept the league as it is right now for them.
Once we accept that, the it becomes a ton easier to relax. No, the NBA will never be as good to us as it was but it is great for them. Let the kids be happy and let us old people take joy in their joy. No, we won’t like all the threes and foul baiting but, take heart in that the kids who love the game now will gripe about the way it’s played in the future.
And on and on it goes. Let us stop being buzzkills and just let the kids have their happiness.
