Sports you just don't get

[WOM]

I don't get the Basketball bemusement. It's basically continuous end to end action, and it's relatively easy to follow what is going on.

But that's the dull part. Tall guy dribbles down the court, sinks a basket, other team dribbles down the court, sinks a basket. It's utterly tedious. The only dramatic tension - as someone posted upthread - is in the last two minutes.

[Lang Spoon]

This. Why bother with 4 quarters at all?

[Lang Spoon]

Is there anyone under 6ft 2 still in the NBA? Would be nice to have someone “short” to root for.

[ursus arctos]

Quite a few, actually

Thomas, Lowry and Paul are all stars.

[Lang Spoon]

5 foot 9! That’s brilliant. Can’t believe someone Rooney height (though surely not build) is in the big time.

[ursus arctos]

Thomas is number four in the photo

[Sean of the Shed]

I can't be doing with Tennis. Proppelling a ball backwards and forwards for hours on end. I've given it enough chances to try and entertain me but it bores me shitless. I especially hate it during Wimbledon fortnight. It takes over the whole BBC schedule in a way that even the World Cup or Glastonbury doesn't manage.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Basketball is the only one of the four major North American sports I've failed to get into. For awhile I figured it must be cultural (ie: I'm not African-American) but there are fair few white dudes who are into it, so it can't be that. The athleticism is self-evident, but appears closer to dance than sport. I'm probably wrong but from a result PoV there doesn't seem any need to watch until the last three minutes. There's a couple of teenagers around the corner who've got a hoop in the drive. They're both insanely tall (the eldest is around 6'8", younger brother — who's around 15 — I'd guess to be about six inches shorter) and skinny. I walk past their house with Phoebe the Dog everyday and they're always there shooting hoops. So repetitious it's almost meditative, bounce, bounce, jump, bounce, bounce jump.

[Gerontophile]

I am a bit of a shortarse, and played basketball for my school. I scored one basket in 10 games. In my defence, I was a half decent playmaker.

I can't think of any sports that I can't be arsed with. Squash, I suppose. Squeaky and dull.

[San Bernardhinault]

Finnish baseball (pesäpallo) and volleyball for me.

The former is just odd. The latter's short phases of play are just infuriating.

I think that’s my problem with it. It’s basically 100% information all the time. Volume turned up to 11 for the entire game. To the point where there’s no excitement on offense or defense. In baseball you’re excited about a run. In cricket you’re excited about a wicket. In football or hockey you’re excited by goals. There’s nothing in a basketball before the last couple of minutes that’s exciting because it’s all happening all the time.

[Janik]

But then, I'm biased in it's favour as one of the schools I went to was well into Basketball as a sport, unusual enough in Britain and highly so in the very white and suburban area I grew up.

Was there any particular reason why your old school is so basketball-focussed? I only ask as I went to an otherwise unremarkable comprehensive in Lanarkshire that had an inexplicably impressive array of field hockey pitches, kit and expertise, despite it being far from Scotland's no.1 participation sport. The mystery was solved when I found out that 2 of our 4 PE teachers were retired Scottish hockey internationals...

Similar. The first headteacher was very senior in the British Youth Basketball Association. Like the President or something like that. Some of the Dinner Ladies also doubled as Basketball coaches.

[Various Artist]

That conjures a truly arresting vision of them sinking hoops while dressed in their aprons and carrying ladles in their other hand. Magnificent.

[Lang Spoon]

My secondary school was big into basketball when I joined in 1976 for the same reason, we had no P.E programme and one of the few teachers who cared about organising something for us was an ex Ireland international (we also had a basketball court in the middle of the playground) those of us who couldn't play or didn't want to were loosely organised in Gaelic football teams and sent over to the public pitches across the road.
In the 80s there was a brief period of popularity for basketball and my school actually entered a semi pro side in the top flight complete with American imported players
Sports I don't get, rugby union, motorsport, anything with someone on a horse

Fucking hell man, it’s weird how basketball burned bright and fizzled and died in Ireland . Was never big in Scotland outside watching NBA on C4, and playing with mini basketballs on mini asphalt courts in the playground at lunchtime (could only use the court for PE). But a mate in his forties from Ballybrack, same thing, the sport was massive, even the Brothers were encouraging it.

Now the Glasgow franchise team can play to 6000 in the post Commonwealth games arena for the big games, and Dublin has fuck all “legacy”. And don’t Belfast have a team/franchise? They seem to be better sorted for indoor sports arenas for some reason. Desperately trying to find sports with no Sectarian connotations mibees.

[Snake Plissken]

Chalk me up as another one who doesn't get basketball at all.

[Sits]

And another. I also can't see the ice hockey puck.

The only form of cricket I enjoy now is Test, and it's precisely because of the gradual ebbs and flows, the almost imperceptible shifts in advantage. Then now and again a session explodes.

Over here, I have fallen in and out of love with Rugby League, lost whatever interest I ever had with Union, and if pushed would choose Aussie Rules.

The reason football stands head and shoulders above the rest is its infinite variability, its simplicity to follow and scope for individual taleng. A golfer, tennis player, swimmer etc. can be absolutely brilliant, but it won't look that different.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

But that's the dull part. Tall guy dribbles down the court, sinks a basket, other team dribbles down the court, sinks a basket. It's utterly tedious. The only dramatic tension - as someone posted upthread - is in the last two minutes.

But the thing is that they don't score most of their shots. and a lot of attacks require multiple efforts to get over the line. The scores get to be quite high, but they don't score with every attack.

One of the polish lads I shared a flat with was big into basketball, and played it quite regularly with other Eastern Europeans on a nearby court. He brought back a czech, a couple of slovaks, and a lithuanian at various stages. And he used to watch streamed matches from time to time. It was grand to watch, and it's easy to look at it and realise that these players are all extraordinary athletes, but also exhibiting extraordinary levels of skill, and I consider the ability to throw 3 point shot with any degree of consistency to be akin to magic, but it primarily seems to come down to decision making. All things strongly in its favour. I just didn't care. I don't have room for another fucking sport in my life. I didn't know who any of the players were, and I just can't care about american sports. (though I can't help feeling that it has a lot to do with the way it's presented, because I found myself quite a bit more involved when he had a polish language stream.)

[jason voorhees]

Golf. Bowling.

I respect those that are good at it, and those that watch it.

But those are the only two I simply can't watch more than :06 seconds of.

I worked with a Russian guy named Yuri, who said "I love competition. Show me two people how far they spit..I watch." I'm in that boat.

Golf and Bowling don't have competitors in the same frame.

Every other sport with competitors in the same frame, I'll watch.

That said, of all the team sports, rugby FUCKING SUCKS.

[Hot Pepsi]

Basketball would better if it were best of five short games instead of one 40 minute game. Free throws should be eliminated or at least sped up and there should be way fewer time outs. The game is inherently fast-paced, but the way its officiated and run seems intent on dragging it out.

Baseball is great if you understand it. Like cricket, I suppose. It doesn't necessarily translate well to TV unless you're already invested.

I can see why test cricket is more compelling drama, but I can see why the ticket-buying fan would prefer the shorter versions.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yet another for basketball, here. It just seems like there's no reason to watch until the last two minutes. You might as well start with a random spread of around 5 points between the two teams and just play those 2 minutes, which are the only interesting ones. Except those 2 minutes might take 10 or 20 minutes given the amount of fouling.

I think that's the one I find hardest of big spectator sports.

And, like Ray, all sports that have subjective scoring don't - to me - seem to be sports as such.

There are loads of sports I'm not a huge fan of - horse racing, or darts, or ice hockey, or rugby (and obviously some of the more obscure things you see at the Olympics are obscure for a reason) - but I mostly get the point of them

A sport is anything people do just for the sake of it, so enough with this "real sport/not a real sport" talk.

[Hot Pepsi]

I've tried really hard to get into ice-hockey, but I can neither fathom where the puck is and who's on the rink at any particular time.

Watching it live even once will acclimate your eyes to being able to find the puck easily based on what the players are doing. It's really not difficult.

You don't really need to know which players are on the ice at a given time to enjoy it. Just know which team is which. Eventually if you follow a team you'll know them by number, but that's not essential.

[Amor de Cosmos]

A sport is anything people do just for the sake of it, so enough with this "real sport/not a real sport" talk.

People paint, dance, sing, make sandcastles and a thousand other things just for the sake of it, but they're not inherently sports.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Absolutely. That titting about on snowboards thing has no place in the Olympics, and neither do ice dancing or gymnastics or diving. They're lovely to watch, and very entertaining, but so are singing and ballroom dancing. Circus is where they belong.

[WOM]

Squeaky and dull.

Magnificent description. Applies equally to basketball.

[WOM]

[i] But the thing is that they don't score most of their shots. and a lot of attacks require multiple efforts to get over the line. The scores get to be quite high, but they don't score with every attack.

Oh, you may well be factually correct. But perceptually, that's exactly what happens. Down one end, score. Down the other, score. Back again, score. Return, score. Then someone fouls someone and an advantage is gained that upsets the rhythm and someone wins. Dull. Dull. Dull.

Other notes: American football has too much fucking around between plays. Baseball should ban batters and pitchers from 'stepping out' for arbitrary timeouts just to fuck up the other guy's rhythm. And spitting should be banned outright, league-wide. Don't even get me started on football/soccer diving / acting / histrionics. Hockey's fine but I don't watch it. Anything that has arbitrary / judged scoring is not a sport.

[Bored Of Education]

Even though I don't like cricket, I get it. However, Grid-iron, I just don't get. I mean I barely hang on with rugby union but its American cousin just passes me by. Things go on, I don't understand what and why and things happen because of it, I don't understand why or what.

I like basketball, having played it, watched and occasionally teach it at school. The school matches are great to watch. I have to say that playing-wise and, possibly, as a spectator sport, netball is a better game.