Commentary
I’m addicted to sports. So I usually keep my television on any ESPN related channel and I check ESPN.com religiously. I had a lot of time on my hands during the break and on the days where I would wake up early enough I would watch “Mike and Mike” on ESPN2. I like “Mike and Mike” for the most part, but Dec. 26th was a day where I realized an inconvenient truth.
Erik Kuselias and Trey Wingo, who were hosting the show in Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic’s absence, were discussing the NBA games that were played Christmas Day. I love basketball, every minute detail that is apart of the game. So when Kuselias and Wingo started saying that they were just starting to pay attention to the NBA after the season started almost two months ago, it was like a smack in the face. They put the priority of basketball behind the NFL, MLB, and College Football, which made absolutely no sense to me.
My love for this game they call basketball is as strong as Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze’s in “Ghost.” Seeing the importance of basketball slipping is hard for me to cope with.
Since that day, I’ve looked at “Mike and Mike,” along with other shows on ESPN and come to the realization that ESPN doesn’t respect the NBA and it’s affecting the youth.
I was a camp counselor during the summer and most, if not all, of the boys always wanted to play football, while they wanted to play basketball every now and then. Some of them didn’t even know how play basketball – we’re talking about pre-teen boys who can’t dribble or shoot a basketball. It’s enough to make a grown man cry.
I can understand the NBA being behind the NFL, but the MLB too? That’s just plain malarkey. Baseball is a great sport, but it just doesn’t translate well on television.
Watching a highlight of A-Rod hitting a home run doesn’t compare to seeing Derrick Rose break Andre Miller’s ankles.
I know one of the knocks against the NBA is that it doesn’t have the stars it used to, like MJ, Magic, Bird and so forth. Well, what about LeBron, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, etc. Another knock on the League is the length of the season. Granted, 82 games are a lot but its gives the players time to heal from some of the injuries they may suffer in the beginning of the season to be ready by at least the playoffs. With MLB, they play 162 games a year. Almost double what the NBA plays and the NFL only plays 16. But if you lose your quarterback in the first game of the season (i.e. Tom Brady), then unless you have Matt Cassel on the depth chart your out of luck.
ESPN can have the NFL and MLB; I’ll be there for you NBA.