I'm Trying To Get Into Basketball And It's More Difficult Than I Had Anticipated

I really enjoy watching sports, but there is one that has never quite clicked for me, that's why I decided that this spring, I would try and get into basketball. So far, the results are underwhelming.

Basketball is so popular and such a part of the public zeitgeist these days that I'll admit I kind of felt left out. I threw on some March Madness games and they were fun to watch but with that over In decided to try watching some NBA basketball.

The main reason I never really got into basketball is that it occupies the same slot on the calendar as the hockey season, and there's not a chance in hell I would ever fore go some hockey so that I could watch some basketball. Hockey is so ridiculously exciting that it makes most other sports feel slow and dull.

But Matt.

Yes?

In basketball they put up like 100 points a game, how is that not exciting?

Because what's exciting about someone scoring if it happens 50-100 times a game?

Hockey falls right in between soccer and basketball on the spectrum of sports scoring. There's enough scoring to keep you entertained, but each goal is still a big deal. In soccer a goal sometimes can be so rare it could be commemorated with a national holiday, and basketball has so much scoring that no one cares how many buckets they missed while waiting in line for a $12 Bud Light.

Obviously, I consider myself a huge hockey fan which I think makes me lose some credibility with the next argument: basketball players are just too soft.

It's the oldest argument in the #HockeyGuy book but it really is true.

At the end of the season, every guy in an NHL lineup has a laundry list of injuries that they played through. Bruises have sidelined NBA players for months.

In fact last night, Draymond Green's contact lens fell out and he picked it up off the court and put it right back in. That was the toughest thing I've ever seen out of an NBA player. Dude didn't even douse it solution first!

Some of the games have been exciting, but still it seems like the biggest story lines out of each game have more to do with what book Lebron is reading during the pre-game shoot around. How exciting can the actual game be if that's a major headline?

The biggest shock should have been that he wasn't swirling a glass of a nice Bordeaux while he read (SHEEEEEEESH!).

One last thing I have never been able to figure out about basketball: are the Harlem Globetrotters the best team?

I think it would depend on the rules. If ladders and buckets of confetti are legal its Globetrotters all the way. But even if all of their gimmicks weren't permitted, I still think the Globetrotters could beat most teams.

Keep in mind (and it should have been pretty obvious throughout this blog post) I know nothing about basketball, so feel free to take me to task in the comments.