Basketball Season

Basketball is finally in full swing. Every level and every age is playing and games are beginning. I could say that I am excited for it all, but that would only be halfway true. I am excited to play basketball yes, but the two and a half hour practices followed by half an hour of film is a little much. I liked the old days when I played for just an AAU team and we had one, maybe two, practices a week and tournaments on the weekends and that was it. All you did was show up and play games. But I know that all the work for the school team pay off in the end. The end result of the high school season is about 127 times better than any 8th grade AAU team.

While I am on the topic of basketball, I need to address the activity of basketball viewing. Watching basketball on TV is something I do fairly often, sometimes because it is halfway interesting and sometimes because it is the only thing on. But whenever I watch basketball on TV, I always watch college games. This is for two reasons: 1- college basketball is pure. The players are not getting paid millions of dollars to play; they are playing for the love of the game. 2- NBA basketball is not really basketball, it just a bunch of guys who seem like they don’t even care about the game and are just playing for the money. Isn’t sad that everything comes down to money.

College basketball is basketball at its finest. It is played hard and fair and teams actually try and play defense. Most of the players that you see are not going to the NBA, college players play for the game. They play hard and with emotion. This is what causes some of the best teams to get beat, the underdog just wants it more. One of the greatest television events (even though it is also just a money maker) is March Madness. I love watching this because it is a cumulative result of a year of basketball that comes down to two teams that have out lasted the rest. They may not be the best two teams in the nation, but they, once again, just wanted it more.

NBA basketball on the other hand, is just a wrong. The players are playing for the wrong reasons and they are wrong in the way they play as well. Almost every player is playing for the money, not for the game. I think that they are overpaid, and if you paid them what they actually deserve, almost nothing, then about 95% of them would leave the game. NBA players should not be making millions to play a game, a game that is corrupt and impure, and going down the wrong path.