The most hated sport

[caja-dglh]

If there was a competitive sport called Two Men Staring At A Spot On The Horizon, it would be infinitely more interesting than NBA Basketball.

What is golf with a camera behind the tee, Alex?

[Hot Pepsi]

The problem with basketball is that there are too many points, as explained and the last five minutes are needlessly drawn out with intentional fouls, free throws, and time-outs. I get that there may be no better way to disincentivize fouls than free shots, but why does it have to take so long and given all that time, why do they give each team so many time-outs?

This tedium is compounded in the NBA by the fact that there are so many games. The NHL and MLB have too many games too, but the outcomes are less predictable, especially in the playoffs whereas in the NBA, at least in the last few seasons, most pundits confidently and accurately predicted who would make the finals and who would win in September. The punditry and attention paid to teams that are not the Warriors, whoever Lebron is playing for, and maybe a few others, just seems like a waste of time. But because a single player can make such a difference, what happens in the offseason is more interesting to fans, apparently, than the actual regular season games.

I'm not actually interested in the "culture" that much. Maybe it's because I'm white, but I think mostly its just because I'm older now and the thoughts of millionaires in their 20s just don't interest me. I can't relate to their lives and they can't relate to mine. Now that some of the players are taking social stands, I'm a little more interested, I suppose, and Lebron is a better personality than most, but I'm fine with the boring hockey guys "well, we just gotta get pucks in deep and get to the net, eh?" stuff.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I'm a convert to basketball only because of how Europe does it. The Euroleague or whatever it's called is brilliant. It's the NBA that's as dull as fuck.

And ice hockey? Sit in a bar full of Latvians and Finns watching a World Cup game. Once again, Americans making it dull with their league. Greatest game of hockey ever was the 1980 Olympic final. Why? Because it wasn't in the NHL.

[WOM]

It strikes me that hockey is a sport that you have to watch in person to gain a proper appreciation for.

What city do you hail from ...er...Cesar?

[WOM]

What is golf with a camera behind the tee, Alex?

I enjoy watching golf.

[WOM]

The problem with basketball is that there are too many points, as explained and the last five minutes are needlessly drawn out with intentional fouls, free throws, and time-outs. I get that there may be no better way to disincentivize fouls than free shots, but why does it have to take so long and given all that time, why do they give each team so many time-outs?

Well, that and the court has 'grown' too small for the players. It should be widened, deepened, and the nets raised 12 inches. Oh, and no touching the rim. (Heh)

[Cesar Rodriguez]

The problem with basketball is that there are too many points, as explained and the last five minutes are needlessly drawn out with intentional fouls, free throws, and time-outs. I get that there may be no better way to disincentivize fouls than free shots, but why does it have to take so long and given all that time, why do they give each team so many time-outs?

This tedium is compounded in the NBA by the fact that there are so many games. The NHL and MLB have too many games too, but the outcomes are less predictable, especially in the playoffs whereas in the NBA, at least in the last few seasons, most pundits confidently and accurately predicted who would make the finals and who would win in September. The punditry and attention paid to teams that are not the Warriors, whoever Lebron is playing for, and maybe a few others, just seems like a waste of time. But because a single player can make such a difference, what happens in the offseason is more interesting to fans, apparently, than the actual regular season games.

I'm not actually interested in the "culture" that much. Maybe it's because I'm white, but I think mostly its just because I'm older now and the thoughts of millionaires in their 20s just don't interest me. I can't relate to their lives and they can't relate to mine. Now that some of the players are taking social stands, I'm a little more interested, I suppose, and Lebron is a better personality than most, but I'm fine with the boring hockey guys "well, we just gotta get pucks in deep and get to the net, eh?" stuff.

Good points although the whole "You can tell who is gonna win the championship thing before the first game" thing is majorly overblown.

Last year the Warriors were mighty lucky that Chris Paul went down injured in game 5 of the conference finals otherwise I suspect the Rockets would have made the Finals..... they were truly invincible in 2017 but they lost in 2016 of course and won in 2015 largely courtesy of both Love and Kyrie getting hurt. Warriors could quite conceivably have won only one championship in the last 4 seasons rather than the 3 that they did.......

In the same vein if you cast back a little further the Heat were only one Ray Allen shot away from winning just one championship in 4 seasons, the Mavs upset them in 2011, Celtics took Lakers to a game 7 in 2010 and so on.......

Compared to the other three sports its easier to predict a winner in the NBA but its nowhere near as straightforward to predict as people make out.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

However, to agree with your point basketball is definitely a sport where the best talent/team/player wins more often than not.

Hockey and Am football are sports where the best talent does not always triumph because grit, heart, hustle and physical play can be a leveller. The lack of physical play in basketball means that you just can't hustle your way to a championship. Superior skill will overcome will.

Also, conditions are not a leveler in basketball either since its played indoors....... There's no rain or snow or wind to contend with or a crappy, divot filled field that causes superior skill players to slow down or trip over.

[Sporting]

Predicting the winners of European football leagues is not that difficult (any one of a max of three in most countries) so to criticise basketball for this would be very unfair.

[Cesar Rodriguez]

What city do you hail from ...er...Cesar?

It's in Northern California, a town named Roseville which is in the greater Sacramento area.

In NHL terms it is San Jose Sharks country.

[San Bernardhinault]

I find college basketball just as boring, and even more meaningless than, NBA basketball.

In both, everything except the last 2 minutes is not worth watching, and the last 2 minutes is incessant fouling and stopping the clock to try and basically finagle an undeserved win.

[WOM]

It's in Northern California, a town named Roseville which is in the greater Sacramento area.

In NHL terms it is San Jose Sharks country.

Ah, lovely. I'm in Toronto. We won the Stanley Cup ... 51 years ago....so....

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm a convert to basketball only because of how Europe does it. The Euroleague or whatever it's called is brilliant. It's the NBA that's as dull as fuck.

And ice hockey? Sit in a bar full of Latvians and Finns watching a World Cup game. Once again, Americans making it dull with their league. Greatest game of hockey ever was the 1980 Olympic final. Why? Because it wasn't in the NHL.

It wasn't the greatest game of hockey ever. It was a major upset, though.

College hockey is better insofar as each game is more meaningful. The single-elimination playoffs are a bit "unfair" but also very exciting.

The NHL playoffs are exciting.

[Hot Pepsi]

Good points although the whole "You can tell who is gonna win the championship thing before the first game" thing is majorly overblown.

Last year the Warriors were mighty lucky that Chris Paul went down injured in game 5 of the conference finals otherwise I suspect the Rockets would have made the Finals..... they were truly invincible in 2017 but they lost in 2016 of course and won in 2015 largely courtesy of both Love and Kyrie getting hurt. Warriors could quite conceivably have won only one championship in the last 4 seasons rather than the 3 that they did.......

In the same vein if you cast back a little further the Heat were only one Ray Allen shot away from winning just one championship in 4 seasons, the Mavs upset them in 2011, Celtics took Lakers to a game 7 in 2010 and so on.......

Compared to the other three sports its easier to predict a winner in the NBA but its nowhere near as straightforward to predict as people make out.

Yeah, but still. The list of teams that could win the title is usually just three or four at most, with one team heavily favored. In hockey, there are usually like five to seven teams who could win it with none of them having much of an edge over the other and usually one of those teams loses in the first round. There's certainly nobody like the Warriors or the Lebron Heat. Of course, that didn't used to be true. The Canadiens had several long dynasties and the Oilers in the 80s were a dynasty, but the Penguins were the only team two win two in a row since the implementation of the salary cap.

I don't know if it's the lack of physical play that makes basketball more predictable. I think it's just that it's such a high scoring game that everything regresses to the mean and no one play can swing the outcome very much. Football has turnovers and big plays"where a guy can run for a 70 yard touchdown because the linebacker slipped in a bit of mud. Hockey doesn't have many goals, so the goalie can change the game. Soccer has even fewer goals, so one moment of brilliance or incompetence can change the outcome. Baseball games can, and usually do, change on one pitch or one swing.

The NBA would be more entertaining if the playoffs were five or three game series. It would make home court advantage worth more too. But that will never happen. Nobody would willingly give up that revenue. I wouldn't be shocked if they made at least the last two rounds nine or 11 games.

[Hot Pepsi]

I find college basketball just as boring, and even more meaningless than, NBA basketball.

In both, everything except the last 2 minutes is not worth watching, and the last 2 minutes is incessant fouling and stopping the clock to try and basically finagle an undeserved win.

In college, each game matters more and the atmosphere at the games is generally better. But all the stoppages are the thing I dislike most about basketball. If it flowed more, like soccer, it would be tolerable. But it doesn't seem to bother the fans. I've never heard anyone ever talk about efforts to reduce the number or length of timeouts or make free-throws go faster.

Basketball also has a problem with the way its officiated. It seems to vary a lot and nobody is happy with it in either college or the NBA. Football has a big problem with officiating too.

[ursus arctos]

Ah, lovely. I'm in Toronto. We won the Stanley Cup ... 51 years ago....so....

More recently than the Sharks, then.

Or my Canucks, for that matter.

[Bored Of Education]

I was just thinking that the issues with Basketball brought up are those that affect the game at its highest level - as it is a brilliant game to play and watch at its fundamental level - and then I realised that most sport could probably have that said about it - football, rugby, cycling etc. Even motor-racing at its lower levels might be quite interesting to watch - certainly, I used to enjoy Touring Car racing to an extent. Also, as many have said on here, football at its most capitalist is a most hateful sport.

The winner for this then must be the sport that, even in its simplest most amateur form, is hateful.Leaving aside the shoe-ins that are blood sports, it is hard to think of a stand-out sport after all that.

[Lang Spoon]

F1 just seems evil. Negligent to driver safety till Stewart and co (and the death of Senna) forced matters, seemingly courting the worst places in the world to host their fuckin events since. I look forward to the Saudi GP.

[Lang Spoon]

And MMA. Fuck that shit. NFL and boxing not far behind on the damage to sportsmen they are willing to tolerate.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah. Anything in which a head injury to one competitor is a great outcome for the other is not ok.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Yeah. Anything in which a head injury to one competitor is a great outcome for the other is not ok.

And that's the problem rugby is still not consistently addressing, blows to the head should be a red card and a ban and perhaps then it will stop. Saying that the game is going soft trivialises serious injuries and while it's not as bad as say American Football it's a serious issue.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I watched a few games of basketball live when I was in Turkey and while I wasn't hooked I came to appreciate the skill involved.

[Muukalainen]

My understanding is that the national federation names were influenced by the name of the international federation, which understandably went for the more precise variant. The names also tend to have been established a long time ago (both Hockey Canada and USA Hockey are 1990s rebrands, though the former names didn't include "ice" either).

That's a bit surprising since I would have imagined that the national federations would have been in existence before the international federation. The Finnish word for ice hockey, jääkiekko translates directly into English as jää = ice and kiekko = disc, though obviously "puck" in this context. I've always thought of this as a bit of an odd construct.

[Gerontophile]

Skiing.

Or (long track) speed skating.

Because there was no way for me to be bad at it. There is now, but I am 112, so of course I am going to be bad at it. I would have been shit at short track, but at least I had options in a Glasgow winter.

[ad hoc]

That's a bit surprising since I would have imagined that the national federations would have been in existence before the international federation. The Finnish word for ice hockey, jääkiekko translates directly into English as jää = ice and kiekko = disc, though obviously "puck" in this context. I've always thought of this as a bit of an odd construct.

Ooh actual evidence of connections between Hungarian and Finnish. The Hungarian word - jégkorong - also means ice puck