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NBA season is over
By Coach P | June 18, 2008
Another NBA season has come and gone. Seems like just like just nine short months ago it all began. I feel like I should probably start this post with a disclaimer. I have not watched a single NBA game in about a decade. Why, you may ask? Because I, literally, could not possibly care less. I don’t want to sound like some old guy saying “Back in my day…” here. I am only 36 years old, so I am not “some old guy.” I just find absolutely no enjoyment whatsoever in this league. Everything in life changes. We have a couple of teachers at my school who are constantly complaining about “the kids today”. One said, “They have terrible handwriting now because they type everything on the computer.” Another said, “They can only tell time on a digital clock.” My response is this…If we are going to type most things in the future, why does it matter that they don’t have beautiful handwriting? Somewhere in the past someone, no doubt, uttered the phrase “The kids today can’t even write with a quill anymore because of these new fangled pens that come with ink in them.” Someone else no doubt said, “The kids today can’t even use a sun dial because of these new ‘clock’ things.” Imagine the horror of the grandfather and grandmother who realized there grandkids could not drive a horse and buggy because of the cars everyone has now! What does all of this have to do with sports you ask? Nothing. Except that it is my preface to the stump I am going to get on shortly. I am not a person who resists change. I think it is inevitable and, generally, for the good. It is natural for us to have the skills that are pertinent to our lives. Most of us, I am sure, have no need for the skills of sun dial reading, writing with a quill or driving a horse and buggy any more than the skills of using a computer were necessary 200 years ago. Sports also change. Football has certainly changed since the days of Pop Warner and Knute Rockne. The thing about football, though, is that it remains more of a true team game. Basketball seems to have changed from being two, five man teams to being five guys playing five guys. In an age where AAU and the And1 tour are what excite kids, they do not seem to understand that having skills and being a good basketball player are not the same thing. We had a player at my school this year who has extraordinary skills, but seemed to be much more interested in displaying these skills than winning games. A team loaded with talent ended up being a .500 team. I am not saying that this happened to the Lakers or any other team in the NBA. It just seems that this is the direction that basketball is headed and when a team sport becomes a bunch of guys playing, it becomes irrelevant in my book.
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