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It’s back! Wait, was it missing? With the end of the MLB season and winter meetings, mayhem of the NFL, and always exciting college sports, I barely had time to really miss it. But yes, if you are a basketball fan, you most definitely noticed that the NBA season just hasn’t been the same. Well, more like it has been nonexistent. Never fear, the NBA players and owners finally came to an agreement ending what seemed like a never-ending lockout.
Now, with training camps underway, trade rumors flying, and the preseason set to go the countdown is on as the first day of the NBA season approaches. Only fourteen days until the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks tip-off noon Christmas Day at Madison Square Gardens, the perfect gift for anyone that may have actually missed watching the sport.
Unlike the NFL lockout, basketball fans didn’t seem as committed to the cause of either side of the argument. Evan Bretzman’s article on The Sport Hole explains the difference between the NFL and NBA lockouts in humorous terms that anyone who has dated can relate to. While fans of the NFL “would have been crushed if the NFL had decided to cancel the season”, many of the same fans though they enjoy watching the NBA, were indifferent about the season or lack there of.
Bretzman compares football to “a long-term girlfriend that you’ve shared some great times with, matured with, and learned to love…It’s the girl you take to Thanksgiving dinner.” Losing that relationship is like losing a family member or best friend. “The NBA, on the other hand, is more like the girl you see out sometimes and hook up with but have no intention of actually dating.”
Regardless of your relationship with sports, basketball is here and ready to take back it’s fans. With a shortened 66 game season and grueling schedule, it will prove to be interesting to see if the quality of play holds up to what fans have come to expect from the NBA. Personally, I hope the upcoming season brings some much needed promise to a city plagued by the “Factory of Sadness” otherwise known as the Cleveland Browns.
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