Soft Serve and Pansy Leagues
Posted by Trey Ho | May 10, 2009
The biggest difference between the NHL and the NBA today: The NHL rewards toughness. Lay a guy out with a good clean check and get celebrated by your coach and teammates back in the locker room. Spring right back up and continue skating AFTER getting laid out and you’ll earn your teammates’ and the other team’s respect for life. Same goes for the NFL.
That’s not to say that basketball, as a sport, isn’t a tough sport. In fact, just like hockey or football, the sport of basketball breeds a culture of perseverance and, of course, toughness. From inner city street courts to grueling varsity practices, the tough thrive and progress while the weak get weeded out.
The NBA earns its “soft” reputation as a business and a league, not as a sport. And after watching a few heated NBA playoff series and after hearing that the commentators, coaches, and players all share the same sentiment, the NBA, as it exists today, has gained my official stamp for Pansy League.
All the flops, flagrants, and mind games that are integral to today’s NBA games have dramatically taken away from the toughness that’s inherently associated with basketball. Tough players like Kobe Bryant (all allegiances aside) and Ron Artest are deprived of their reputations for being tough because of the league’s “play nice” mentality.
It’s clear that the NBA is looking after its own interests, granted, but they’re going about it in a way that compromises the sport’s integrity. Delaying the game for medical attention every time Paul Pierce whines about getting slapped on the wrist or ejecting players from the game after some good hard-nosed defense inhibits the potential for some great competitive rivalries that fans crave. There’s an acceptable level of preventative maintenance but these days, the NBA is kissing the footsteps of neurosis.
After game three of the Lakers vs Rockets playoff series, Kobe Bryant went on camera to say that Ron Artest’s ejection was unnecessary. That it should’ve been two shots, simple as that. Jeff Van Gundy complained about how players can’t stop a simple lay-up these days without getting penalized.
Obviously, there was that “incident” at the Palace. Jermaine O’Neal sliding his fist into a fan’s face and Stephen Jackson rearranging a fan’s nose in the stands didn’t help the cause but it’s been over four years now and there’s definitely a better way than to eject Ron Artest at the end of every game for no good reason.
I say bring back the 80’s. Bring back Bill Laimbeer and the days of the Motor City Bad Boys. Let’s never go back to the fight at the Palace but come on refs, let them block a lay-up without getting ejected from the game. Squish the soft serve and let them play!
Love, Go Raptors!
