Selfish players dominate NBA, making league hardly fantastic

Brian Thompson Instead of watching the current
NBA, Thompson looks forward now to watching Lakers-Celtics games
from the ’80s on ESPN Classic. He can be reached at [email protected]

The NBA has had a clever way of misleading sports fans for the
past decade or so.

First, they tried to tell us that their brand of basketball is
entertaining with the slogan, “NBA Action: It’s
FANtastic!”

Then they took it a step further by convincing us that it really
is our favorite game with their latest slogan, “I love this
game!”

But the product that David Stern and company present us night in
and night out is far from lovable. The NBA, 2001 style, is a league
of dull, low-scoring, poorly executed games played by uninspired,
selfish players who lack fundamental skills and are oblivious to
the concept of team basketball.

We don’t hear about great basketball anymore. Instead, we
hear about how Shaq and Kobe don’t get along, or that Allen
Iverson cussed out a fan, or that (insert name here) got busted for
drugs this week. Sure, we always pay attention to the soap opera
aspect of sports. But in basketball, these dramas seem to get all
of the attention.

Before we get too far into why today’s players produce
such a horrible product on the court, let’s take a look at
why the game itself has gone down the toilet:

“¢bull; Coaches milking the shot clock: What happened to those
great Lakers vs. Celtics games from the ’80s? The game went
up and down the floor for 48 minutes. The final score was always in
the area of 120-118.

Today, teams walk up the floor and set up their half-court
offenses. The guards hold the ball until there are about five
seconds left on the 24-second clock. Then the team tosses the ball
around until it is forced to throw up a bad shot with about two
seconds left on the clock. The defensive team gets the rebound, and
proceeds to do the exact same thing at the other end of the court!
What happened to pushing the ball down the opposition’s
throat?

“¢bull; Isolation offense: With the current illegal defense
rules, teams basically put the ball in the hands of their best
player and clear out the rest of the team to the opposite side of
the floor. This, of course, draws away the defense so that guys
like Allen Iverson and Vince Carter can go one-on-one with their
defender. Sure, it’s fun to watch Vince dunk on somebody, but
is this the way the sport is supposed to be played, with eight
players just standing and watching the other two go at each
other?

These two problems have led the NBA to take a drastic step. It
has decided to allow zone defenses next season. But that just leads
to our next problem.

“¢bull; Allowing zone defenses: I hope you like watching Brian
Shaw and Rick Fox shoot three pointers all game long because
that’s exactly what will happen when teams get into a zone on
defense. Dominant men like Shaq will be double and triple teamed
all game, which means that we’re going to see long-range
jumpers taken time after time.

When Shaq was asked what he thought of the rule change, he had a
one-word answer for ESPN.com:
“Stinks!” Remember, it was the zone that prompted Shaq
to leave college early for the pros.

And can somebody explain this one to me? If scoring is down, and
the league wants the excitement of high scoring games, why give
defenses another means of stopping offenses?

But the blame for the downfall of the NBA doesn’t end with
how the game is played. The bulk of the blame lies with the players
themselves. As former star player and current Indiana Pacers Coach
Isiah Thomas told ESPN.com last
week, “I don’t think the game needs to be tweaked. I
think the players need to be tweaked.”

In terms of action on the basketball court, players today are
less concerned with team play and more concerned with getting on
SportsCenter with amazing dunks.

Players are too busy running around with their posses, wanting
to be seen in their Expeditions and Navigators, and worrying about
getting paid. Winning seems secondary.

This only encourages high school and college players to skip
school and come to the NBA. They are rewarded with fame
immediately. Even the NBA markets its stars, not its teams. The
basketball itself doesn’t seem to matter much. Who cares if
your team wins?

Look at players like Stephon Marbury. He forced a trade, leaving
playoff contender Minnesota so he could play in New Jersey. Why did
he want to be on a cellar-dwelling team like the Nets? Because he
could never be “the man” playing with Kevin Garnett in
Minnesota. And he could never get paid enough with Garnett on the
payroll. Marbury gave up winning for money and fame.

The sad thing is that players are rewarded for their bad
decisions. Look at a guy like Darius Miles on the Clippers. He
skipped college altogether and entered the NBA out of high school.
While he shows flashes of brilliance, he gets consistently
overplayed by anyone outweighing him by more than 10 pounds (Miles
is 6-foot-9 and weighs only 200 pounds). But in return, Miles is
the front man of the Clippers’ advertising campaign, and is
prominently featured in the new Nike ad campaign.

And let’s not even get into guys like Rasheed Wallace
(whose latest spat was with a teammate who accidentally elbowed
him, leading to a typical outburst and, of course, a
suspension).

It’s no wonder why so many people are clamoring for the
return of Michael Jordan. People are looking for anything or anyone
to return the NBA to its glory days.

But alas, even His Airness couldn’t save the NBA right
now. The game is too boring and its players are too selfish. With
the way the game is played, along with the mentality of
today’s players, the NBA may never be the place quality team
basketball is ever played again.