After 15 years of disinterest, I picked this year to tune into in the NBA again. Lucky for me, since last time around I was a Laker fan, and I didn't see any reason to pick a new team this time around.
The NBA is better than it used to be. Gone are the days when Patrick Ewing would drive to the basket butt first. Gone are the days of 72-69 finals. Scores don't climb into the 120s like they used to, but today's NBA teams know how to move the ball and put it in the basket.
But what really stands out is how bad college basketball has become in comparison. Every NBA player can shoot jump shots and drive to the hole. Every NBA player (except for Shaq) can knock down free throws. Every NBA player is big, fast and most of all, graceful. It's not quite like watching the ballet, but it is a thing of beauty to watch a fast break to develop, or even a set play in the half court.
By contrast, college players are smaller and less agile. Few can boast the complete game that the average NBA player can. The game itself is much less smooth. Plays unfold in a much more herky-jerky manner. College basketball is, well, ugly in comparison.
Late in game seven a Celtic (was it Wallace or Allen? can't remember) chased down a loose ball near the baseline headed toward the end of the Laker bench, planted his foot just beyond the arc, twisted in mid-air and drained a three-pointer. I looked at Laura and said, "College players can't do that."
And then there was this:
The quality gap between college football and the NFL is, if anything, greater than that between college basketball and the NBA. There are no LeBrons in the NFL. Nobody comes straight out of high school to be a starting middle linebacker, much less a quarterback, and I doubt that anybody ever will. But at least college football retains the best players in the 18-22 year age range. I knew in my mind that college basketball would have been better had KG, Kobe, LeBron and others played four years of the college game, but not like I knew it after tuning into the NBA for the first time in a long time.
I will continue to be a college basketball fan because I'm a North Carolinian by birth, and hating Carolina and Dook is in my DNA. But if I want to see the game played at its best, I'll watch the NBA.
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