Basketball is Just
Another reason that I love Soccer. Here in Sacramento, we used to be the passionate fans of the Kings, ringing cowbells, booing Shaq, and blaming (rightfully so) the crooked refs for destroying "our (notice fan relationship to team) chance at the Title."
But somehow
In the last ten years, with a somewhat tricky relationship of stars to rap music, and thug culture, the NBA is now a gloomy look of a league plagued by slimy characters, and ugly nightclub stories. And it's taken it's toll on all of Basketball, especially here in Sacramento. I went to a game recently to see the effects, and noticed a light amount of fans.
In just
A short amount of time, maybe 10 years, we have seen a league go from respected professional sport to league of notorious criminals who are destroying the NBA: (There are links to each and every story, so please read through here first, then go on to the stories as you find them interesting or disturbing. You may be surprised how bad it is.)
Ron Artest
Ron Artest and Jermaine Oneal beating up fans in the audience (not that the audience was innocent) in a huge brawl(full video)that brought NBA teams and officials to their knees
Ron Artest leaving dogs to die at his home, see "Rack of Bones"
Jamal Tinsley
Jamal Tinsley and brother James Tinsley's recent leaving a Night Club with multiple reasonable cars like Rolls Royces, and involved in a shootout. The story is unreal. But Larry Bird is just concerned that everyone is ok. So is it safe to assume nobody, and we mean nobody, will hold these two to any judgments?
Latrell Srewell
Allen Iverson (so much scandal)
Allen Iverson involved in off season shootouts at Night Clubs(notice that trend NBA thugs), or pissing in garbage cans at casinos, or arguing over "stolen" chips at casinos (good work AI), and his rap music (the kind of guy you take home to mom), The Murder Threats directed at his Cousin, yielding a Semi Automatic Weapon, The AI Timeline (controversy, followed by huge endorsement, controversy, huge endorsement, it will make you sick)
Then after all these nice crimes, and there are many more, Allen Iverson had the nuts to say that David Stern's NBA dress code was "racist". Oh, and this isn't the only time AI played the race card, the first time he was in trouble with the law.
Stern should tell AI to jump off a cliff and die.
Douchebag Carmelo Anthony
CA involved in gang videos called "Stop Snitching" that explain that you can't get caught "snitching" on thugs, or they'll kill you, making the "snitch" the bad guy.
Well Carmelo, I hope you wear red in the wrong part of town and enjoy the benefits of gang life. I won't pay to watch your dumb ass play a game so you can take my money and go kill people with it. And to think, somebody asked him to play for TEAM USA!! It's disgusting.
Kobe
Ref Scandal
Isaiah Thomas
Isaiah Thomas calling an employee a "bitch" because she gave him "no love today", and rejecting his sexual harassment, but that was no problem because he was "black" and so it's okay for him (wow), and all of this has landed him zero punishment from the Knicks' Ownership Group. That link has an interesting take.
Check out this Isaiah Thomas quote it will raise your eyebrows:
"A white male calling a black female a bitch is highly offensive. That would've violated my code of conduct."Fan Fallout
Teams like Seattle and Sacramento(attendance down) talking about leaving for other towns like Oklahoma City, Anaheim, and Las Vegas, to the dismay of their sales offices, and David Stern, doing irreparable harm to the Team/Fan Relationship. Check out this verbal altercation!
Maloofia
The Maloofs talking David Stern in to having the NBA All Star Game, a ghetto event by most standards, in Las Vegas, the City of Sin, an ideal place for Basketball Players who want to act like, and hang around with Rappers, and Gangsters. Quick note: 362 ARRESTS AT THE EVENT!! Bad decision.
And it Continues
Just today, December 14th Jason Kidd (this time not with wife/ex Joumana) made the news by allegedly "groping" and "threatening" a model in a (guess where) Night Club. It seems the NBA is so intense you even have to work out all night in clubs dancing, molesting, and threatening people. Don't forget the fights. (Read the threat here).
Tip of the Iceberg
Trust me, there are many many many many (I don't know how many times I can say this) many more stories, but the latest one is just another example of the low lifes that the NBA is producing, and why I say let the NBA fall apart, and quit supporting criminals.
Check out this Former Trailblazer's Fan's Take on his Site, http://www.nbacriminals.com/ I can't say I fault him at all. This is no longer the league of Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Kevin Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kenny Smith. Those players conducted themselves with class, for the most part, and were part of a league and an era of respect. The NBA is no longer that league. How is this a Soccer story? Here's how.
Soccer?
I say, bring on the MLS, and enforce (before necessary) HARSH penalties on any player in MLS who acts like the Neanderthals in the National Basketball Association. The punishment on Houston Dynamo's Ricardo Clark for kicking the FC Dallas player Carlos Ruiz in the face (9 games $10,000 (tons of money by MLS standard)) is a good start. As it is now, the MLS is the least tainted league in the country, and has some of the best role models in American sports. There is only 12 years of history, and so far so good. MLB is dealing with the Steroids Issue today with the huge Mitchell Report, and The NFL dealt with Michael Vick and Ray Lewis recently, but the MLS is clean now. Let's keep it that way.
Good Luck Dave
By the way David Stern, it's too late. Just resign. Let the NBA fall apart. You don't owe the players, the coaches, the teams, or the organizations. Trust us, they aren't doing you any favors.
Balance
Don't get me wrong. There are good images in the league as well. But for every nice guy's image like Tim Duncan, there's an even greater number of images (more marketed btw) of Thugs. It's like a Cancer that has a hold of a body, and won't let go until it's killed it.
Reaction
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10 comments:
SoccerBlog..you are an idiot....you just took the negative (most of the things you talked about happend a lot of years ago) and you just used them as an excuse to bash the league.
also, the NBA is doing a great job in the community, I know the NBA is building hospitals (or players visit hospitals), schools, learning centers, homes (especially in New Orleans) and such.
And, contrary to what you said, for every bad apple, you get hundreds of respectful players, both on-and-off the court. (not the opposite like you said). The great majority of players never got in trouble with the law, so stop talking about stuff you don't know about. Check the roster of every NBA team and you will hardly find "bad apples". Please, go back watching soccer and its hooligans killing people during games. You don't hear about that kind of crap at NBA games.
all star game..oh my God, no NBA players created troubles during the Vegas weekend. All of them behaved themselves. Please give me a link where it says that NBA players created troubles. Good luck finding it. Not to mention that the biggest troublemaker was Pacman Jones, an NFL player (infact the poor guy who got injured by the shooting sparkled by Mr.Jones sued the NFL, not the NBA..so why don't u talk about the NFL?).
Do you want to talk about the countless NFL players getting arrested in the past few months. The list never ends. Or how about michael vick. Or the Bengals who got more players arrested than the whole NBA combined in the past few years?
Jamaal Tinsley: it looks like he wasn't even involved. He just hanged out with his friends and that's all (like a lot of pro atlethes do). It's not his fault if some crazy criminals targeted him because he's rich.
Kidd: OMG!!!! Please, I doubt he did that. He has so much money that I'm sure he wouldn't have one single problem to have a girl. I doubt he did that. I'm almost sure the girl made this whole thing up just because she needs money.
Iverson: well, he's changed a lot (I also read an article about it last week) Now he's a responsible person. Get your facts straight instead of bringing up things happened ages ago.
As far as the Blazers comment, everyone fell in love with the Blazers once again in Portland. They got rid of all the bad apples and now their team is filled with great guys, both on-and-off the court.Not one single person is complaining anymore, even the ones who left during the JailBlazers era. Ratings for NBA games in the Portland area are through the roof and the attendance at Blazers game is extraordinary.
And there are so many other things I would love to add, but I don't want to waste my whole night arguing with someone who don't even watch the NBA and is full of prejudice.
PS: If you want to talk about national disgrace, just talk about those crazy criminals who go around shooting and killing people in schools, malls, churches. Those are the TRUE CRIMINALS. Those are TRUE NATIONAL DISGRACE. Not a pro player, who's no more dangerous than, say, Paris Hilton.
PS2: Ratings for NBA games, both national and local ratings, are way up compared to last year, despite the Donaghy scandal and all the other things you talked about in this blog (and you blew them all way out of proportion).
PS3: Do you want to talk about refs? It's not like NFL refs or NHL refs or soccer refs are that better. They all are horrible. Plus, if u want to bash NBA refs or basketball refs in general, take in mind that basketball is the hardest game to officiate and there are a lot of judgmental calls. Stop talking about idiotic conspiracy theories.
About this season's TV ratings..looks to me people are getting back. And you just made things look worse than what they actually are.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/cabletv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003680785
FSN NBA Ratings on the Up and Up
John Consoli
DECEMBER 04, 2007 -
NBA ratings are soaring through the first month of the season on Fox Sports Network's regional telecasts, with household ratings up 12 percent overall, but with some teams' TV ratings up as much as 146 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research data.
FSN has telecast rights to 17 of the NBA’s 29 teams, and 10 of those markets have experienced double-digit household ratings increases. The largest increase, albeit off a lower base, was FSN Wisconsin, which televises the Milwaukee Bucks games—up 146 percent to a 3.0. FSN Southwest, which televises the San Antonio Spurs games, is up 90 percent to a 7.1 rating. FSN Arizona, which televises the Phoenix Suns games, is up 82 percent to a 4.6.
Other double-digit ratings increases include: FSN Midwest, which televises the Indianapolis Pacers games, up 43 percent to a 2.3; FSN Southwest, which televises the Houston Rockets, up 31 percent to a 3.1; Sun Sports (Orlando Magic), up 23 percent to a 2.4; FSN West (Los Angeles Lakers), up 15 percent to a 3.7; and FSN Detroit (Detroit Pistons), up 10 percent to a 3.3.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/dec/09/ratings-up-sharply-for-league/
Ratings up sharply for league
Resurgence of Celtics seen as key reason behind surge
Associated Press
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When word of the Tim Donaghy scandal got out, there were some initial fears that fans were going to turn away from the NBA.
That hasn't been the case so far.
Early season ratings have been up - by quite a bit in some places - as the fans have returned following an occasionally rocky offseason that included referee Donaghy admitting he bet on games.
Better yet, they're the right kind of fans. For its first 10 games, TNT reported an 18 percent increase in ratings among adults age 18-34, including a 29 percent jump among men of that age, the most coveted demographic for advertisers.
"Our early growth in ratings and all key demos speaks to the strength and health of the NBA brand and the game itself," Turner Sports president David Levy said.
The best news for the NBA following the Donaghy scandal was the Boston Celtics' return to prominence. The acquisition of Kevin Garnett, coming after the Celtics had landed Ray Allen on draft night, immediately made the league's most storied franchise relevant again.
The release of the league's schedule was delayed so the Celtics could be given some nationally televised games. TNT showed them for the first time on Nov. 29, when Boston beat New York 104-59.
The Celtics helped Comcast SportsNet witness a 20 percent ratings increase for the five teams that had games shown on their regional networks last season. Celtics games were up 97 percent on CSN New England.
Ratings on FSN's regional networks were up 12 percent for November, with double-digit increases in 10 markets. That included a 146 percent jump for the Milwaukee Bucks on FSN Wisconsin.
Good Ol' Days: Times have been tough lately in New York and Philadelphia, but fans of those teams get a reminder of better days this week.
The Knicks and 76ers were among the teams participating in the NBA's "Heritage Week," which began Friday and runs through Dec. 14. Nine teams will wear throwback uniforms, with New York being outfitted in home uniforms from the 1972-73 season and the 76ers from the 1982-83 campaign. Those were the years of the last championship for both franchises.
Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Golden State, Miami, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers will also be wearing a retro uniform at some point during the week. Also, the Lakers (60 years), Pistons (50), Bucks and Suns (40), Spurs (35) and Heat (20) will be wearing a special patch or logo to celebrate their anniversaries.
Stick to soccer please and stop talking about things you don't know about.
I could have thousands of reasons to bash soccer, but I prefer not to, especially considering this is a soccer blog. It should be nice if we all could get along and respect other people's interest, putting away wrong perceptions.
And it would have been nice if you didn't get on a basketball blog on Yahoo! to post the link to this stupid post (that's why I am here btw. I don't care about soccer). Probably you increased activity here in this way, but you could've avoided to do that. I get on there to talk about my favorite league/sport with people who share my same interest, not certainly to read what an NBA hater thinks about the league. And you ruined it all for today. Thank YOU! Probably you would be extremely upset too if someone got on a soccer blog and posted hate toward soccer.
I don't know how you would feel if a basketball fan (or any other sport for that matter) would get on a soccer blog and started talking trash about your fav sport.
Grow up please.
Quick note: 362 ARRESTS AT THE EVENT!! Bad decision.
There are hundreds of people arrested even at the Super Bowl FYI.
And the NBA fall apart? You wish! Dude, the NBA is one of the most popular sports leagues in the world and it's making money left and right. And revenues hit a new record this year. Leave it alone
This is for everybody who has a problem with the post: I am sorry if I have hurt you as an NBA fan. I was just going through recet memory, and began searching for the facts. As I did, I found link after link of disturning information about the NBA.
Where you are right: The NFL has plenty of issues with the Law. However, with just a few exceptions, Commissioner Goodell has been harsh to a fault (in some people's eyes), and I commend him for that. But you are right, and the NFL needs to continue the fight against crime culture as accepted in sports.
Where you are wrong: The NBA may have good characters, but they have done so little to punish the problem children they have. Spare the rod, Spoil the Child.
Sure they may do work in the community, but that doesn't mean these guys are off the hook.
I have met countless guys in the NBA, (I work in pro sports people) who are upstanding good guys. BUt I have also witnessed plenty of the hip hop entourage in the NBA, and it's growing.
Another thing you are wrong about, is that I said "ratings are down". I never said that. They may be up, and that's good, because "attendance is down". And I didn't even say league wide, I said in towns like Seattle and Sacramento. Those are facts. Remember this blog is based in Sacramento.
Lastly, I didn't intend to ruin your perception of the NBA, and I am not a "hater", I looked up countless stories, and posted every single one!! Read them. Tell me how the NBA has punished Carmelo Anthony for his relationship to gangs, and gang videos. Tell me how AI has been taken from the league because of his many brushes with the law? Has it happened? No, he's a marketing centerpiece of the NBA.
PacMan Jones is out of the NFL, without pay. Notice that. The Falcons aren't starting Michael Vick are they? Ricky Williams hasn't had a good NFL payday in years, and just got what might be his last chance in Miami.
Other leagues are enforcing rules on the thugs, the NBA has embraced them. Just read Larry Bird's comments about Jamal and James Tinsley's shootout, he isn't coming down on their multiple bad decisions.
I go out to clubs, but I never leave them in Rolls Royce's chasing enemies, and shooting at them. If I was shot at, I think I would call the police.
Call me prejudice? Are you kidding me?? This is now a race thing?? Am I coming down on Tony Dungy? Am I against Herm Edwards, or Jerry Rice? How about Tim Brown? Did I call him a thug?
Read it, read the links, tell me you don't see problems. Who is really biased, listen superfan!
The reason I pointed this out was to remind MLS fans, that these are not problems that can be negotiated in MLS. Ricardo Clark deserved his harsh fine (again
$10K is big in MLS). Don Garber and MLS need to ensure good codes of conduct, and enforce them, before it's too late to stop the problem.
In the words of the announcers at the Pistons Pacers Brawl, "there's nothing the authorities can do at this point."
Again, read it, all, and judge from there, if you still see no problem, I will gladly agree to dissagree...
Quotes
ome have argued that the criticism of the NBA is hypocritical, considering the relative lack of criticism of Major League Baseball or National Football League players. Quoted from Sports Illustrated's Kelly Dwyer and Jack McCallum respectively:
� Fans/media/12-year old girls routinely go out of their way to denigrate these players over misdeeds both perceived and real, but these guys can�t hold a candle to the faux-redneck (prep boys trying to pass themselves off as salt of the earth types) baseball shtick, or the lovely world of professional football.[5] �
� The unassailable fact remains that the NBA is a predominantly African-American league (73%) with a more openly hip-hop culture. While blacks make up about 65% of NFL rosters, football has never been seen as an �urban� sport. Moreover, because there are so many NFL players, and their sport is so team-focused and they�re covered in padding, they maintain some anonymity. It�s easier to embrace felons � of all colors � hidden under helmets than tatted-up black men in plain view. ... Some NBA players, such as Indiana�s Jermaine O�Neal, have been outspoken in their view that race is the major reason for the league�s negative image.
NBA commissioner David Stern, in a 2006 interview, made this comment about the brawl-related criticism:
� When Ron Artest went into the stands, it was, 'All those players are �' ... And I know for a fact that they're not [all the same], so I wonder why they're so easily generalized. Maybe we're not doing as good of a job as we should be doing, or maybe there's something else at work.[14]
Somehow NFL players have received the status normally reserved for white people in America: the right to be judged individually, not collectively. After Timothy McVeigh blew up that building in Oklahoma City, security guards didn't cast a suspicious eye on every white man driving past a federal building. But ask any person of Middle Eastern descent how hard it was for them to board an airplane after Sept. 11. ... The same double standard goes for the NFL. At most, a misdeed will be grouped by a team, such as the rash of arrests of those on the Cincinnati Bengals' roster. But it's rare to see the leap from "that guy" to "those thugs" in "that league," which is what happens when an NBA player does something dumb.[24] �
�J.A. Adande, Los Angeles Times
� The NFL had a starting defensive lineman be deactivated after police raided his home and found six unregistered guns in his house. This was a day before said defensive lineman's bodyguard was shot and killed outside a Chicago nightclub, with said defensive lineman standing nearby. ... And one of the NFL's biggest stars, on one of its signature franchises, spit in the face of an opponent who was "bugging" him. Not beating him with a pipe. Not heisting his car. "Bugging" him. That player was fined $35,000 by the league Monday, yet I heard no cable television show or talk radio host wonder whether this meant the NFL was out of control.[25] �
David Aldridge, TNT
I agree with you only about the fact that the NBA should suspend or even ban the players who give a bad image to the league in general. But I love the NBA too much. Just yesterday I had the pleasure to watch one of the greatest basketball games I have ever seen: Warriors-Lakers (and what an awesome crowd btw, it was the largest crowd ever to attend a basketball game in California). I was on the edge of my seat even if I'm not a fan of those two teams. So, I'm not going to stop watching something I love and that excites me just because a few bad apples or a few incidents happened years ago (see the brawl). Most of people are over those kind of things. I almost forgot about the brawl until I read this blog. I don't care much about players' personal lifes. What they do in their life is none of my business, even tho I still agree that people who create troubles should be suspended/banned.
You mentioned an incident happened outside the Arco Arena. Yeah, I read about that, but how come it's the NBA's fault? It was a drunk guy who got in an argument with someone and killed him (if I am not mistaken). It could have happened anywhere else. We hear about those kind of things all the time when we watch TV or read a newspaper.
Also, why don't you talk about the countless brawls between fans (and players, occasionally..Romario anyone?) in soccer? Fans getting killed at games? I'm not into soccer, but I got to watch a few videos about fights during soccer games. It's SCARY. And I heard soccer officials talking about the NBA being a great example to emulate when it comes to fans.In fact, you never heard about incidents in the NBA (with the infamous brawl being just about the only exception).
Also, you talked about people arrested during the All-Star Weekend. The same happens during the Super Bowl and other big events. Why don't you mention about the incidents happened during the Red Sox championship parade when a lot of people got arrested? Or the Red Sox fan killed in 2004? Or an NFL game in Cleveland that was suspended because many fans got mad and started throwing bottles on the field, hitting players, officials etc.?
Or about the many obnoxious drunk fans who attend football and baseball games (personal experience and it's not fun having to deal with them while you are trying to watch the game).
And since you like bringing up stuff happened years ago (see the Sprewell thing), you would also like to mention the brawl between Rangers and Bruins players and fans happened in the '70s at MSG.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcerSjeENrg
And why you don't talk about that baseball player who threw a chair into the crowd injuring a few fans in 2004?
Or about the several bench-clearing brawls in baseball? Or how about a college football games in 2004 when all players starting fighting like crazy, kicking each other, screaming like crazy.
So, please, stop singling out the NBA.
A couple of things I forgot to add.
I think that race has a lot to do with the actual image of the NBA. And just so you know, I'm white, and even as a white I can see that race is a big issue when it comes to judge NBA players. I had this kind of conversation with some of my (white) friends who are NBA fans and they agreed with me too. And I posted a few quotes in my previous post. Kelly Dwyer and Jack McCallum, who said race has a lot to do with the way people judge the NBA, are white too.
So, you don't need to be black to understand it.
As far as attendance, the main reason why attendance is down in Sacramento is because the Kings suck. When the get better, attendance will increase and they will sellout games once again. The same thing is happening in other NBA cities. It's not because of thugs and stuff like that. If it was, then every team would have attendance problems and tv ratings would be very low. But it doesn't seem the case. Just look at Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Dallas, Miami, Houston, San Antonio, Portland, Lakers, Golden State, Orlando, Phoenix etc. Those teams are pretty good. In fact, they sellout every game (or most of them). The only exception is New Orleans, but Katrina has a lot to do with that..and Seattle to a lesser extent (it's rumored they will move, plus the team is really bad).
I also hope the Hornets will move to Oklahoma City where they got a lot of support in the past two season.
And I hope the Sonics stay in Seattle (and attendance is down in Seattle becaus
yes soccer is well known for the positive impact it has in countries where more than eight people watch it. Like the positive points in this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17350251/ or perhaps the happy moments in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF6Skj7WGoM
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