This is an article submitted by the poster known as Rummpd.
One Fan's Opinion: “I Love this Game”, but ...
By Peter D. Rumm, MD, MPH
I have been a long time fan of the NBA who has watched the league grow and who has attended games in many cities. In my travels as a public health doctor I have also observed the first hand the growing international interest of the league and have had the privilege of watching NBA televised games in countries such as Lithuania, Russia, Panama, Germany and Australia. However today, despite this growth and my continued love for the game, I am greatly worried about the future of this great league for my seven year old son, Peter Jr. I hear media pundits and fans of other sports blast the NBA as a poorly played, thuggish league.
As someone who works in the area of mass communications, much of these perceptions seem to be not entirely fair. Yet, they need to be actively countered better by this great league and the media involved. What can be done to improve the image of the game and subsequently improve the product on the floor? I would like to suggest three strategies.
First, don’t exclusively promote large market teams and a few flashy superstars. Right now the league seemingly concentrates on promoting these teams and several superstars such as Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony at the expense of other individual and team oriented stories that need to be told. Who is to say that a Ben Gordon of the Bulls is not the real future of the NBA? Why don’t we see more on Shawn Marion, the backbone of the streaking Suns, who is also a great humanitarian? Such players and teams and many more are impacting the league, and we get little insight into such stories on a daily basis.
In reality and actual practice, the current ABC, ESPN, TNT package could and should be known as the Lakers/Cavaliers/Heat network and media relations. While in the short-run this strategy can capture audiences and may drive ratings, we are missing out on much of the great NBA action. We are not building interest in other rivalries.
Second, please get, find or develop some better informed analysts and announcers to do the televised games. How many times do I have to hear someone like a Brent Musburger re-state an obvious point repeatedly or show a perceived bias to anything relating to the past glories of the Knicks or Lakers? Why do we always have to listen to Bill Walton’s extremely slanted pla udes? Unless someone has some valued added insight, please tone it down.
Third, something serious has to be done about a seemingly valid perception by many fans of the terrible state of the NBA officiating. A good call should be a call period. There should be much more consistency between games on what is a foul and what is not. “Star calls”, “payback calls”, and greatly skewed foul totals between home and road teams and certain franchises should not be happening, but do all the time. Could we also see some palming and traveling calls occasionally just for old time’s sake? Most importantly, just because a player throws the ball up and touches, falls into or barrels over a defender, it should not always mean it is a foul on the defender.
Moreover, when stars are involved, such “Jordan Rules” are carried to an extreme, and simply put, compromise the true integrity of the game. Conversely, there are also certain officials that are commonly perceived to bring personal agendas toward certain players. Why should such an official’s bias, if it truly exists as it seems to, change key games? Many of us feel that at least a couple of championships in the last decade may have been affected by either transiently incompetent officiating or even worse -- biased officiating. At the very least, the NBA needs to work to counter such perceptions through at least some changes in its current officiating standards proactively.
Peter D. Rumm, MD, MPH is a public health doctor working in the area of health communications in the Philadelphia area. He greatly loves the NBA despite its flaws. He can be reached at [email protected].
I agree, mostly agree and agree. But for the NBA it all comes down to the Allmighty Dollar; smaller market teams, team players and even-handed officiating don't fit in with the NBA's current image, and I don't think there's nearly enough of a concensus among fans right now for the NBA to truely try to repair that image, beyond token improvements and nicley worded press releases that don't actually fix anything. But all in all, good article Rummpd.
Great post. Agree wholeheartedly.
As a fan of the game you would understand that this is all based on position, stance and movement. I think overall this is called fairly, the offensive player has the right to draw contact and even initiate it, and it can be a foul on the defender based upon the the three things I stated earlier.Most importantly, just because a player throws the ball up and touches, falls into or barrels over a defender, it should not always mean it is a foul on the defender.
These are things you understand when you play the game and smart players capitolize upon it, anyone that makes it to the nba knows about this and is willing to act accordingly.
yeah right, everytime a Kobe, Iverson or a McGrady blantly falls into someone it is a foul? I have officiated games at the high school level and know these are tough calls but sometimes it is just common sense. All I am asking for then is some level of consistency, i.e., then when a Devin Brown or Beno Udrich goes to the hole the same way make the same friggin call. It simply isn't happening right now.
Last edited by Rummpd; 03-30-2005 at 09:44 AM.
Really great article! Congrats Rummpd, but Beno isn't Udrich, he's Udrih (no "c").
You got SLOWNED!!!Really great article! Congrats Rummpd, but Beno isn't Udrich, he's Udrih (no "c").
I'm glad to see this article and will email to commend this guy. He's right. Watching college ball during the tournament (I avoid it during the year), I find the common wisdom that college ball is more exciting really tired (in general - Final Four is different entirely). I'm just much more interested in watching far more talented players play in the NBA than good players among the far less talented that is the college game. Yes, absolutely, there are boring games in the NBA. The season is long and there are a number of bad teams. But there are far more teams in college I'd never watch and there's probably only half a dozen games per good team of any real import during the year, until the conference tournaments come around. The game is also a lot less dynamic, with most offensive sets having guards and forwards pass around the zone-guarded perimeter until someone shoots a three. Make or miss, there's an inbound or rebound and it's the same on the other end. Sure, the NBA has its isolations and defensive battles, but the NCAA is rife with lackluster and boring play, too.
ESPN is the real culprit. In the 90s they sold a bill of goods that was all about preening, dunking, and one-on-one play. A generation of players bit into it, not recognizing Jordan was much more than that, and once Jordan left, we had a few down years where the league was left trying to make superstars out of players like Jerry Stackhouse and Stephon Marbury. The most dynamic new player, perhaps, was Allan Iverson, who is one of the greatest ever, but unfortunately personified, perhaps out of necessity, the me-first at ude. It seems like the league is growing out of this, with new players like LeBron and Wade being multi-dimensional, full-fledged players. But ESPN is still sticking with its shiny product with a rotten core. All sizzle no steak. TNT is a fortunate tonic, with its studio crew of Barkley and Kenny Smith, and they seem to have better announcing crews, but ESPN is just execrable.
Sorry Beno!!!
Don't hate on Bill. Walton is the Vitale of the NBA. He's really quite knowledgable and can be an extremely insightful analyst on occasion, but let's face it: that's not why he's on your TV. He's one of the great personalities/characters in the NBA family, and has earned the right to be where he is. His accomplishments on the court, combined with the will and discipline that it took for him to overcome his oratorial deficiencies make his a truly inspirational story.
Other than that, I thought this was an excellent article. Well done, Dr. Rummpd!
Great article Rummpd!! But I'm with tekdragon I also like Bill Walton he is quite funny.
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