“I like the way [Cade Cunningham] is playing and I like what Chauncey [Billups] is doing.”
That’s a quote from NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” talk show from last month during the heart of the league’s season. In it, he’s referencing the Detroit Pistons and praising who he believed to be their head coach, Chauncey Billups.
There’s a huge issue with that statement. First of all, Shaq makes $15 million a year to talk about basketball. Despite that $15 million salary the former MVP gets paid to “know ball,” Billups currently coaches the Portland Trail Blazers, and has never once been head coach of the Detroit Pistons.
As a sports communication major and NBA fan, it has become increasingly harder to remain enthusiastic about the league and the discourse surrounding it in recent years. Yes, a part of it is because of the actual basketball being played—teams take too many threes and the referees often impact the game more than they should—but a majority of the growing hardship that I find comes with being a basketball fan is a product of people who aren’t lacing up.
I keep up and engage with a substantial (possibly unhealthy) amount of sports media. Whether it’s Pat McAfee and his merry band of “yes-men” on ESPN, Boston sports royalty Bill Simmons on his podcast, or any random Joe Schmoe venting on X, I’ve probably seen it. One common thread throughout it all is that, for whatever reason, basketball receives the most negative and arbitrary commentary of any major U.S. sport.
It certainly doesn’t help that an alarming percentage of the game’s ambassadors and pundits don’t actually watch the games. Sure, Shaq’s imaginary coaching swap could’ve been nothing more than a mental blip, but it’s far from his only statement that makes you scratch your head. The four-time champion also declared that Giannis Antetokounmpo hasn’t managed to evolve his game at all in a season where the Milwaukee superstar reached new career bests in terms of midrange shooting and playmaking.
Stephen A. Smith, another one of the highest-paid figures in sports media, seems far more concerned with garnering attention by any means necessary than actually delivering cogent sports analysis. It doesn’t shock me, given how busy he is publicly feuding with LeBron James, that all he has time for is watching the CliffNotes of games on YouTube.
And while these titans not doing their homework does suck, it wouldn’t be the hardest thing in the world to just ignore. What’s maybe even worse is the fact that even the people who do watch the games are seemingly incapable of appreciating them.
Stephen Curry dropped 50 points and 10 three-pointers at age 37? Hear the next morning about how well he needs to do in the playoffs in order to “cement his legacy.” The Detroit Pistons go from the worst team in the league to making the playoffs in one year? Find out how they’re not actually a big story and won’t win a championship, so they don’t matter. Both are examples I’ve personally seen online and illustrate fans’ inexplicable desires to downplay exciting basketball.
Stuff like this happens constantly. Anytime LeBron so much as breathes, it sparks another “greatest of all time” debate between him and Michael Jordan. Basketball fans are obsessed with comparisons and championships. It’s made more obvious by the fact that other sports aren’t plagued by this as heavily as basketball.
In the NFL, you’ll still stumble into GOAT discussions and comparisons of eras, but it’s far from the main course, so to speak. On the whole, fans are able to appreciate Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, and Joe Montana for their individual greatness and impact on the game.
Alex Ovechkin recently surpassed Wayne “The Great One” Gretzky’s NHL record for career goals, and I’ve seen nothing but positivity and respect towards the Washington great’s accomplishment. It felt like a truly special moment in the sport … and then the next day, ESPN ran a headline questioning if Ovechkin’s longevity was more impressive than that of LeBron James.
The NBA is singularly stuck in a place of negativity surrounding today’s game. Whether it’s clickbaiting agendas that are spun to fill pockets, a blatant lack of true love for the game, or a nostalgic yearning for the sport as it existed when the person was growing up, it needs to stop.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t criticize our favorite sports leagues, teams, and players when we feel they could be better. Constructive criticism promotes change, and if anybody deserves it, it’s the people making millions. But I want to have a career in the sports industry and I don’t want to work in an industry that hates the very thing it centers around.
With the NBA playoffs now in full swing, let’s make sure we enjoy it. Let’s enjoy the big names like James, Curry, Jokic, and Dončić competing at the highest level. Let’s enjoy the chess match between two coaches trying to outscheme each other. Let’s enjoy guys like Ty Jerome and Naz Reid, who I’ll have to double-check if Stephen A. has heard of. Let’s enjoy basketball.