The reason to watch NBA games and follow teams

Posted by By Eric Labrador at 22 May, at 08 : 35 AM Print

Throughout the past playoff tournaments and the present one, it seems if sports news outlets that broadcast the games like TNT or ESPN play off of old rivalries and fan sentiments of yesteryear on how fanatical they were/are about their teams. But in the post-Magic, Michael, Larry era of basketball, the cities and teams no longer are the reason fans cheer. It is the players themselves. The Boston-Lakers NBA finals in 2008 & ’09 was a great example where probably most of the viewers didn’t remember or were alive for the Boston-LA Finals of the 60′s, 70′s or 80′s. Younger viewers only wanted to see Kobe, KG, Ray Allen and so on. The TV networks still though played up the nostalgia.

Now though, the NBA needs to see that the viewers are structured and setup differently than in era’s past–sports media coverage has a lot to do with it. Every fan watches for a different reason related to basketball.  The NBA on TV is still a ratings hit, but since fans know now the business side of the league as much as the basketball side, fans are equally as turned off by players as they enjoy players and wear their jerseys. Old rivalries are history and any tension is ‘pushed’ as a storyline by ambitious beat writers and sports news analysts then the players themselves. Many players are such good friends with other players  that on a TV broadcast they can be seen smiling and joking with one another. The NBA and sports news agencies have been desperately trying to find the ‘next Jordan/Johnson/Bird’ to recapture a past era.

Possibly a different geared broadcast and coverage of basketball is necessary. Perhaps a return to the days where the play-by-play man was the only voice you heard or saw during the game and he with his production crew gave the stats, provided analysis and interviewed the coach and players. Maybe less of an emphasis on dunks and highlighting athletically gifted players doing circus shots on SportsCenter which make them the most popular kid in school the next day can be stopped. Maybe the logos on the team uniforms themselves should give way to corporate logos as the WNBA has and the EuroLeague does on their uniforms.

The Bowse's Word Boston vs LA Lakers, ESPN, TNT, WNBA