Thy words move not only my heart, but also earth and moon my good lad.
1) Announcers, Spokespersons, Analysts.
They all go in the same category because they all say same things that a five year old child would say when cheering on his younger brother or sister. "That was a good play." "Nice job, Timmy." The only difference? Tina isn't wearing a 1500 dollar suit and doesn't do it for a goddamn living. Let me be clear: say something that sounds somewhat intelligent. Don't say, "you know, Tim Duncan is just solid in the post." No shit he's solid in the post: he's been playing in the post since the Dark Ages; I don't need to hear how good he is in the post or how nice of play it was--I can see it was a nice play. Tell me something I missed. Show me a replay of a pick and roll that set someone up or an off-the-ball movement that somehow freed a player--show me things I can see myself. Most of these guys have played professional basketball, played against top, legendary players. Tell us what it's like to guard them, to shoot over them. Tell us how difficult it is. Give us a sense of what it takes to be a shooting guard and having to walk the ball up the court with five seconds left; yeah we know it's tense, but what's going through your mind?
Do they do that? No. Is that only for basketball? Hell no. I can clearly think of soccer as an example: Alexi fuckin' Lalas. That man has a bigger head than any goldeneye character with big head mode on.
Picture for reference and size comparisons.
The funniest thing about it? Alexi Lalas did absolutely nothing for soccer in the U.S. Sure, he may have influenced some people, but how many kids have posters of him in their room? And that's his problem. He expects them to. They got clobbered at the world cups time and time again, in a time period that american soccer was looked upon as the worst of the worst. Sure, he had some wins, but who cares: You're getting paid to get on national television to tell me that Spain is excellent at holding the ball--yeah, we know; any idiot with eyes can see that. Genius. Absolute Genius.
2) Comparisons.
We here it all the time: MJ and Lebron; Kobe and MJ; Jesus Christ and Lebron (wouldn't be surprised if that has happened already). "Well, Jesus walked on water, but Lebron took his headband off...ya gotta give to Lebron there: he's got two championships; Jesus don't have any." I don't give a shit about comparisons and the rest of the country gets sick of hearing about after the--oh, I don't know-- 1,000,000,000th time you've mentioned it. For the record, no, Lebron will never be as good as Michael Jordan and there are too many goddamn reasons why. End of discussion. I don't want to hear it even if he does get to six championships. Why? Because I"m not watching the game to listen to those comparisons: I'm watching the game because I've had a long day and I want to watch mind numbing basketball where I can get into the game and cheer my favorite team on. That's why we love college so much: it isn't as much about the superstars; it's about the team. It's always about the team. You don't see this in other sports, I don't think. Sure, there are some comparisons in soccer, but I don't know about Hockey and Baseball--I don' t know much about the sports so I can't comment. What I do know is that when I am watching baseball or hockey, I don't ever hear those debates; I hear about trades, burnout, statistics, possible playoff scenarios, and frankly, when I watch those sports, I see something that isn't in basketball right now: the love of the game. You listen to hockey announcers, you can tell they absolutely love it; they love how the game is played; same with baseball. But when you listen to sports announcers and analysts for basketball talk, all they can reference are the players, not how exciting the game is. Jesus Christ, shut up already.
3) Money
The fact that there was even an NBA lockout with this shit just drives me up the wall. Whatever happened to playing for the fun of the game? Is that what sports have come to? You don't see that in hockey or soccer though (can't speak for baseball). Like I said, those players LOVE to play that game. They would be playing the game if their pay was taken from them and they were homeless.
Where the fuck is my hockey stick?
The point? What was the point of the NBA lockout? Hey let's decide how much money players get as compared to the managers. How arrogant are you? You really need that extra million bucks in your pocket? What's worse is some of them came from nothing and have forgotten that. You see some of them walk around with $5000 watches and god knows how expensive their suits are, and to what end? You deprived fans of quality time watching a sport they love because you wanted more money? Do you not get paid enough? Tell that to the goddamn fireman who volunteers and comes home every night to watch a bball game and can't because boohoo Ray Allen wants more money (I have yet to talk about football, but I'm getting there). America should have just stopped watching basketball at that point. It's honestly depressing. In a tumultuous economic season, where shit can hit the fan at any moment, job losses are rampant, education needs reform, and healthcare is so messed up and corrupt that there may not be any hope for it, the last thing we want is to have a little bit of pleasure taken from us because 23 year old basketball phenoms want an extra million. Play the game. You play for us. You play for yourself. Not fuckin' money.
4) Grow the fuck up
And that's another thing: grow the fuck up. You're not Jesus Christ. You're not god's gift to basketball. Here's a news flash: at some point, there WILL be somebody better than you. You see older, more mature players acknowledge this--Kobe and Tim Duncan come to mind. Younger players are so conceited and hotheaded they think they can walk on water. I don't blame them really though. Think about it. You're 22. You just finished your second year in college and you get all this media attention. You're unbelievable at putting a ball in a hoop. Scouts want you. Endorsement deals are on the line. You go to the NBA and get advanced 10 million dollars and all the sudden your face is plastered everywhere you can see it. Would you be arrogant? Yeah. So I blame the system, which I'll talk about next. But for now, you can see the immaturity everywhere, from in-game behavior to the twitter comments they make. It's awful. Who raised you. Were you raised to be like this? Were you raised not to appreciate a single goddamn thing that was given to you? Granted, not all players are like this, but some are--and they are ignorant about it too, as if that's just how it should be. No it isn't. It should never be like that.
One of my favorite moments in sports is when UC and Xavier got into a huge bball fight and UC's coach goes to the press conference and completely tears his players and the sport apart. He says, "They are not here to play bball; people are here to get an education." That's absolutely right. It's a privilege. Playing Bball at the highest level and for your country is a privilege, not an entitlement, so act like it.
5) Deification of sports
This has to be the worst. And the best example of it is the Penn State football scandal in which young teenagers were molested and all people could care about at Penn State was how Joe Paterno got sacked for allowing it to happen, not the poor souls who would have to endure that terrible event for the rest of their lives. First, that asshole should have been sacked. Second, football isn't a religion. It isn't God, no matter how much you want it to be. And the fact that we are at the point in this country that we can neglect our morals and childhood teachings just because somebody coaches fucking football is absolutely ridiculous and is possibly the most pathetic thing I have ever heard. So much goddamn shit gets overlooked for the sake of sports. Why? Because they are stars? Because they are more important than other people? That's just ridiculous.
Want another example? When Lebron took his fuckin' headband off. I mean are we serious? Did sportsnation really just write a whole article about a headband? A HEADBAND? I could understand if it was something important like a chain his wife gave him, but a headband? 
One headband to rule them all, one headband to find them; one headband to...okay you get the picture.
I suppose I should admit I'm not immune to this. I do idolize Steven Gerrard, but I would hope that if he came out and said he was racist or made homophobic comments, or touched little boys in the bathroom, I wouldn't love him anymore. And that's the point: we don't take into consideration character anymore. I love MJ, but he cheated on his wife. No one ever mentions that. I hate Duke but I love the coach (his name is too long) because he teaches character. He teaches respect. Have sports lost that? Or has this country lost it and sports become the vehicle with which it is visible to the world? I don't know. In the end, it just makes me want to scream.
have a good one.
--Matt
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