What’s wrong with the NBA, part two
June 15th, 2008Sportsmanship. While watching the NBA finals the last week, I saw an event that repeated itself over-and-over again. When the Lakers attempting a three-point field goal near the Celtics bench, you could see members of their bench yelling at the shooter and even jumping and clapping their hands to simulate a blocked shot. More often than not, this behavior was done by Sam Cassell—an NBA veteran with 14 years of experience. Now, to be fair this could have occurred when the Celtics were shooting; I do have a pro-Lakers bias.
With that said, the fact that this is happening is troubling for the NBA. This practice demonstrates an obvious lack of sportsmanship and is a poor example for youths competing in leagues around the country. I personally have lost a lot of respect for Sam Cassell, and it has really cast a bad light on the Celtics franchise, as a whole. A blog post like this should not have to be written. Players, organizations, and ultimately the league should self-regulate this behavior.
Now, I would like to say this is an isolated problem for the NBA. But, with players constantly yelling at refs (Rasheed Wallace) and giving cheap shots after plays (James Posey), this seems like the rule and not the exception for the league. I think a lot needs to be done in the area of sportsmanship, before I will seriously consider watching it on a regular basis.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I think those sounds were not the Celtics bench: it was the sound of Kobe’s forearm in Pierce’s ribs and elbow during the last “steal” in the final few minutes of game 5. Boy, the NBA got a long series out of this one, and its generates more revenue because of it. Interesting. . . . .
June 16th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
The biggest sportsmanship issues in the NBA are the ones allowed by the league. Flopping should be a technical foul and the pump-fake-jump-directly-into-the-defender shot needs to be banned.
On the theory that David Stern controls the length of the Finals, I disagree. There has been only one seven game series in 13 years, and last year LeBron’s team got swept.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Ah, the Rengel NBA conspiracy theories are alive again.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Good lord, Rog, when did you become such a beacon of sportsmanship?
The NBA needs better refs. They are pathetic, although it is by far the hardest sport to ref. Consistency is needed. The sad thing is you can’t tell when refs are throwing games or just suck!
Is the nba involved in some shady calls? Dunno, but the fact that it is a serious argument is scary enough for me.
The sad thing is that the NBA has finally chilled out on expansion and has allowed the talent pool to start to catch up. We are getting a lot of fun, good teams. Now is not the time to ruin it.