“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
The NBA preseason is upon us, which — like the above Dickens opening to A Tale of Two Cities — is manifold. On the one hand, the preseason means the the actual NBA season is less than a month away: YEAHHHH BUDDY (that’s me giving a cyber high-five to the other NBA heads out there). But, the preseason also means the next three weeks will be spent watching basketball with our fingers crossed behind our back, or on our knees genuflecting to the Gods of Basketball to keep everyone healthy until real basketball starts. That’s because teams are charging fans to watch the reserves on the roster either earn a spot, or a D-League demotion — or, better yet, a more lucrative move abroad. Preseason is fun because we’re finally watching NBA basketball again, but it’s also a bit of a false idol. What we’re watching is even more useless than the too-long, 82-game regular season. These games do not count!
Yet, here we are, playing them anyway and risking useless injuries in the process.
“But they’re going to play anyway,” you say, “so why not have them play in front of fans.” Well, that’s sort of true, but there’s a way to do this without foisting so much anxiety on the fans.
If I were a coach, I’d go full Popovich in Phoenix through this entire month. Yes, my starters would be scrimmaging full-bore throughout October, but they wouldn’t be in preseason games. Remember Michael Kidd-Gilchrist seemingly submarining the Hornets’ season before the dang season even began last fall? That’s also when Derrick Rose fractured his orbital bone, too, instead of his relationship with female fans.
I don’t know if this was intentional or just the divine gift from the metaphor gods. But in the midst of reading this article I had a Lane Bryant advertisement pop up, and I honestly thought that was a part of the argument. Lane Bryant lingerie ads are the perfect metaphor for preseason basketball. Yeah it’s a little bit Of action, yeah it’s free, an they might even get you revved up a little bit. Once you think about the real deal, your shoulders slouch, and you sigh a little bit, and think about how long it’s been, and how low you’re willing to go to feel anything again.
annnnnnd goodbye
Shut the comment section down. G.Thomas wins the day.
Great point about it being purely about money Spencer. I’ve been a life long fan of the NBA, but this point about it searching to suck every penny out of the fan is just absurd. Maybe it’s time the fans started to push back against this and asked for free tickets for pre-season games…