NBA on the decline

By Tim McManus

Popularity in sports really boils down to two things:

1) Being exceptional at what you do and

2) Possessing qualities that relate to your audience

You don’t have to have both to make the front page (The Spurs fought into the limelight despite a wealth of personality, while Sal Fasano made it because of personality only, for example), but if you want to achieve greatness and obtain staying power, you must have both.

The 1990’s Bulls had it. The ’93 Phillies had it. Tiger Woods has it. Would these teams/figures be popular if they were dominant but not charismatic? Sure, they just wouldn’t be iconic.

The formula holds true for sports as a whole as well.

Football reigns supreme because it presents a superior product and knows how to market itself to its audience.

Baseball has the talent and the luxury of being “America’s pastime”. The level of popularity ebbs and flows due to circumstance but as long as the above mentioned traits are in place, the sport will always be a force.

Hockey, meanwhile, is just a one-trick pony in the United States, hence the decline. Yes, the NHL offers the best the world has to offer. But it a) has athletes that can’t really be tracked until they’re already stars and b) overhauled its rules to such a degree that it’s hardly recognizable to its fan base anymore. S0 you have foreign players – on a couple different levels – playing an unfamiliar style of game. Should it be a surprise that the sport has fallen off?

That brings us to basketball, which is dangerously close to losing both key ingredients.

It is already in question whether the NBA is the elite basketball organization in the world. Best athletes, yes, but after repeatedly coming up short against international competition, many believe that the level of play has dipped below sea level. And as the failure of soccer and competing football leagues have already taught us, the United States does not take kindly to organizations that don’t offer the crème de la crème.

And the NBA is also becoming more and more difficult to relate to.

Here’s a little psychological test: Before reading on, take 10 seconds to think of the most significant stories in the NBA over the last few years…

Here’s what comes to my mind: Kobe’s rape case…Artest jumping into the stands…talkin’ about practice…Vince Carter not giving full effort in Toronto…Nuggets-Knicks brawl…Tim Hardaway’s response to John Amaechi and gay players in the league.

With the old guards gone and the new ones still a bit too young to take the sword and shield, it appears that the culture of the league is shifting in a damaging direction. Just look at the last two weeks. Tyrus Thomas saying he was only going to participate in the dunk contest because of the money? Gilbert Arenas complaining because his coach wanted the team to focus on defense? Shavlik Randolph (Shavlik Randolph!?!) politely asking his fellow players not to bring their gayness on him? And now the Hardaway bombshell?

And this has all happened over what, 10 days?

The point is, there seems to be stories coming out of the NBA at an alarming rate that leaves its audience stunned, and most significantly, put off. Couple that with the enormous salaries – and the amazing coincidence that many players’ performance peaks during a contract year – and you have a fan base that often feels it’s peering in at a world completely alien from its own.

You must be exceptional at what you do and you must have qualities that relate to your audience to remain on top.

The NBA is questionable in both departments right now.


Tim appears on this page every Thursday. You can contact him at tmcmanus@phanaticmag.com