Around the NBA: March 2020 edition

He's just mad that broadcasters don't like HIS and the analytical version of basketball. I agree with them. This version of the NBA is just boring to watch. There is a lot of talent but just shooting 3's all day, and the rules making it so you really can't play defense at all makes it boring IMO.

 

But it was also tough to watch some of the 90's wrestling matches between the knicks,pistons and the heat for instance. They went too far with the contact rules, breeding Harden's sell the foul/contact game. maybe incorporating the euro version of the key to open up the lane, yet allow more of the incidental,shooter initiated contact to be non calls. Better/consistent enforcement of the current rules period would improve the game a lot in my opinion.

 

Not if it leads to change that people want to see. Corporate yes man have their place. There is a positive side to the commentators saying this isnt what I think people want to watch, and this is how it would be better. I dont really hear a ton of negativity, but yes there is some. If they just bloviated about how awesome the game is now and all they could or should say is to cheerlead, wouldnt that come across as incredibly fake?

 

why... To make Morey feel better? They get paid to talk and have an opinion not to just say I love everything the NBA does. Think about a business that says we will allow no one to question us and will accept only those who tell us what we want to hear, and I'll show you a failing business. His example of the NFL is a good one, their commentators in just about every game who talk about how the game has changed and give an opinion on it, sometimes it's positive sometime's it's negative.

 

Also his point about none of this matters until the playoffs. the players give off that impression, by taking games off, by downplaying losses in January, by kind of not acting like they care unless it's a nationally televised game. His team just lost to the Knicks. If that game was round 1 of the playoffs think their effort is a little different? I do. I don't see any reason why the commentators just need to shut up and not give an opinion. It's not like the commentators are saying things other people haven't figured out and many of those commentators are players, who literally know that hey it's obvious these guys don't care tonight.

 

The difference is those guys are saying this other brand of car is better. In this case, these guys are saying I like basketball, but they should do this better, or they did it better and need to make changes. Which that actually does happen. You go into a car dealership and they say oh I think this year's version of the dodge whatever is good, but this one over here might be better, or they used to build these better and should make changes. That's a much different story. No one at Dodge is getting fired for saying I loved my 95 Dodge Ram better than my new one.

 

Guess all I'm saying is while I get it that positivity can help, I think Morey, in particular, is just upset that people don't really like his brand. I think the analytics side of basketball has turned off a lot of people ex-players included, there's good and bad to that, but Morey doesn't seem like the type of guy who's going to take criticism well. I don't think the broadcasts are nearly as negative as he's making them out to be.

 

I'd rather argue the point that I think there are benefits to the league of critically minded commentators though. Like many discussions, there is more than one point that goes into it, or more than one way to look at it. For this one, I have a few points. The commentators aren't as negative as he's making them out to be. He just feels attacked and is using the oh, "it's bad for business", line to put pressure on them to stop talking negatively about his way of doing things. It's hard to put tangibles on if critical commentators are beneficial or not to the league. Side bar: In fact, if anyone hurt the NBA business by their comments in the last year or so more then Daryl Morey I'd like to read about it. Since he is basically responsible for their China problem. - I'm not commenting on his comments - Just factually he started that.

 

Also just to note, I agree that 90's basketball and every era really, has had their own issues. I just think right now they've gone way too far with some of this stuff too.

 

I tend to agree with Morey that talking down the style of play is neither good for the league, nor is it a valuable contribution. You can cast Morey as "biased" because he was one of the major contributors to the league's play style, but the commentators probably have equal bias, watching a style of play that's antithetical to the style that they made their fame coaching or playing in. It also makes them less fit to actually analyze the quality of the play and the tactics--just as someone who dislikes Chinese food would be ill-equipped to analyze the quality and the techniques of Chinese cooking for people who are interested in and enjoy Chinese food.

 

I see your point, but I am going to play devil's advocate for a moment. If there is a bad play or a blown call and the commentators ignore it (or worse, try to excuse it) don't you think that also offends a big chunk of the audience? Sometimes, being objective means being critical. When a commentator tries to ignore or rationalize events like bad officiating, I feel like they are insulting my inteligence.