The NBA season has just begun and I still can't decide if I care. It seems like half the people I know are NBA fanatics and the other half couldn't care less. It's hard to deny the fact that the NFL is the superior product this time of year. Then again, it is far from a fair fight. Comparing a 16 game season to an 82 game season is like comparing a slice of pizza to a hot dog eating contest. Sure, pizza and hot dogs are delicious but after the 3rd hot dog, it becomes a bit of a chore. I'll half heartedly watch the playoffs and catch a couple big matchups here and there and part of my lackluster enthusiasm for the NBA certainly stems off the fact that my favorite team, the Sacramento Kings, haven't had a good year since the Chris Webber era and, therefore, hardly receive any television coverage here on the east coast. There is something inherently unexciting about waiting for your computer screen to refresh with a score update. Admittedly, I am a much bigger fan of college basketball, which leads me to my next point.
The age old question of NBA versus NCAA has remained answerless since it was first asked. Which is better? Obviously, as expected, this is not a simple question and therefore requires a complex answer. There are a few key compliments and complaints concerning both leagues. Starting with college basketball, the main complaint is the talent level. This is clearly unavoidable. On one hand, the players are still kids. This fact carries with it a lack of talent, discipline, and overall maturity. On the other hand, in comparison to the NBA which takes only the best of the college pool of players, the talent level can not and will not ever be on par with its professional counterpart. Any given game will be sure to contain far fewer fast breaks, alley oops, and made baskets. This lack of individual talent leads to a more team oriented style of play. One of the main knocks on professional basketball is that it lacks this aspect.
Granted, the NBA game is more fast paced and exciting, but the emphasis on individualism leads to an overall lack of flow. The other complaint about the NBA revolves around the business of it all. While the NCAA is a business as well, with power hungry coaches and administrators as well as countless licensing and marketing ventures, the players themselves are largely unaffected by the money. In the NBA, however, the players are at their jobs every time the step on the court. This rubs off on the passion they have for their team as well as their teammates, because when it comes down to it, every individual is competing for their own best interests. Unlike football, for example, where most players are judged as a unit, i.e. the offensive line, basketball players are mostly judged comparatively to other players at their same position or the other players on their team. Plus, as we've seen time and time again, one or two superstars can completely change a bad team to a great one. This is not the case with most other sports.
This also has its upside, as a team who is down in the pits, will likely not remain there for long. College, on the other hand, has its prestigious teams that more or less keep that title year after year as good recruiting leads to winning which leads to good recruiting and so on. The most interesting question hidden among this whole mess is how can someone be a fan of both? They are opposites in so many ways and yet so many people love both professional and college basketball. I guess the truth is hidden among the many wonders of the sport. James Naismith created one of the most exciting, suspenseful, and spectacular games in existence today. Professional, college, who cares? Let's just enjoy the fantastic show that is basketball.
(Let me just clarify that all of the generalizations that I made for the sake of argument in this post are, by the very definition of the word, general assumptions and do not apply to every player or team in the league. There are plenty of passionate NBA players just as there are plenty of underdog stories and superstars in the NCAA. As the title implies, I tried to look at the differences in as non biased of a light as possible. If you have a strong opinion one way or the other, I encourage you to comment on this post and voice it. This is intended to be a discussion, not a lecture.)
