Re: Anti Bulls sentiment

[krai@gis.net]

At 23:15 -0600 6/6/98, Rich Davies wrote:
>Because I am sick of him. I am sick of his arrogance. I am sick of hearing
>'the
>greatest player ever...' I am sick of his complete and total
>disregard/disrespect
>for anyone else in the NBA. I am sick of his 'untouchableness'. I am sick
>of his
>attitude that the refs should be in his back pocket. I am sick of listening to
>Bob Costas (among others) worship him. I am sick of this being Jordan's NBA.

Not to disagree here, but were you as sick of Bird, when he was enjoying
the same status? And Costas...Well, the blow-dried motormouths rarely, if
ever, have anything insightful to say, but they have done pretty well for
themselves just by genuflecting towards the sport's cash cow of the hour.
Heck, if you can make a couple mil a year doing that, why change the
approach?

[Rant on:] Commentators that are professionals AND knowledgeable about
basketball are an endangered species in the NBA (as broadcast by TNT, TBS &
NBC). The trend now seems to be towards teaming Costas-types with
tongue-tied vacationing basketballers and coaches (with a few pleasant
exceptions among the latter).  The resulting product is disastrous. This is
one of the reasons I don't watch very many non-Celtic NBA games. We're
lucky to have Gorman, Heinsohn & Cousy on our broadcasting team, Heinsohn's
cheerleading and Cousy's speech problems notwithstanding [End rant].
>
>He acts like the good guy, and does his interviews for his image. And his
>image
>brings him $. And $. And $. And $ ...

Yup. Some of the books about the Jordabulls (the ones written by honest
scribes, not Jordan's toadies - I forget the titles) reveal a small-minded,
greedy, pretty mean person hiding behind the facade of Saint Mike.
>
>Whoever it was on the list that discussed the effect of Jordan on streetball
>players everywhere, was completely right. They want to be 'like Mike'.
>They want
>the ball. They want the glory. They want the money.

It's true that playgrounds are overrun by "jordans" - however, I'm not sure
that he per se  "created" these retards. I tend to think that such
imbeciles were there before Jordan, emulating a Bob McAdoo or [name a
selfish, flashy player from the 60's], and will be there after him (will
playgrounds be infested with legions of "kobes" in a few years?).  It's a
certain mindset that at this time happens to be attracted to Jordan as its
model. BTW, our own Antoine would do nicely in this mold, if only he were
popular enough for the little cretins to know about him. Thankfully, the
disease is most severe in the teenage years, and the condition usually
improves somewhat as those kids get up in years.

>
>And then there is the NBA. They have allowed traveling for years. They have
>implemented rules that discourage team play and promote one-on-one matchups.

Apparently, that's what most of the audience wants. One-on-one duels
between the major stars would probably be hugely popular, maybe even a PPV
success. Remember how a few years back there was a lot of talk about having
such matches? I think it ended up with the megastars not willing to
endanger their reputations (even though the outcomes would be bogus anyway
with respect to a player's value in team basketball).

>They
>allow the refs to promote their stars by giving not only questionable calls to
>them, but non-existent ones as well.

I sometimes wonder: are the refs explicitly told to do that, or are they
expected to figure out the "right thing to do" themselves?

>And whoever makes the NBA more money, is
>more likely to get the call.

Well, it's a business, and they must think it makes good business sense.

>Lastly, they have allowed the NBA to become the JBA;
>Jordan's Basketball Association. They have lost credibility in my eyes by
>their
>obvious deference to Jordan.

They're just showing their gratitude to his Airness for their big
paychecks. While Jordan is not the sine qua non of today's NBA (Magic and
Bird were), he truly "globalized" the NBA. It would be pretty difficult to
find someone who hasn't heard of Jordan; on the other hand, plenty of
AMERICAN kids can't name the President, or the capital of the US.

K. Kveraga