[Other Sport] NBA - oh god no...

[seagulls4ever]

So you enjoy baseball, cricket and golf, but you find basketball insufferable...is that right?

 

[Barry Izbak]

So you enjoy baseball, cricket and golf, but you find basketball insufferable...is that right?

Yeah

 

[Notters]

Could you not have got one of these: https://www.nowtv.com/sports-purchase

Requires a now tv box doesn't it?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Requires a now tv box doesn't it?

No. Watching Ireland v Wales right now on the TV, through the now TV app on the PlayStation4. My laptop and my big iPad are also set up to use it (one pass can be used on up to 4 devices)

 

[Lewes Punk]

To say that one particular form of throwing, kicking or hitting with a stick is intrinsically 'better' than any other is rubbish.

I genuinely don't think that's true. In fact, I think it's empirically provable that football is the best sport.

It has the fewest rules of any mainstream sport so it's easy to play and easy to learn. (unlike ,say, baseball)

You can be good at it no matter what size or build you are (small and nippy, big and powerful). (unlike, say, basketball)

The points system (goals) is the perfect balance between allowing upsets but generally rewarding the best team (unlike say rugby)

It's easy to follow visually either from the stands or on TV (unlike say ice-hockey)

It hardly requires any particular kit to play (unlike say motor-racing)

It can't be entirely distorted by performance-enhancing drugs (unlike say cycling)

No doubt there are others, but all of those are facts. I'd argue it's no coincidence that football is the global game - because it's the best. I know there are some quarters of the world where cultural bias stops football ruling supreme, like the USA, but they'll get there eventually.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Not a fan of basketball myself - made it even harder when DCH Jr was playing. It appears that even the NBA have realised that the first three quarters are just filler and offering to let you pay to watch only the last quarter

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/basketball/45676015

 

[seagulls4ever]

Yeah

As far as boring sports go, I'm not sure basketball comes bottom of that list

 

[Geestar]

Woohoo.....can't wait for the season to begin!

Let's go Heat!!

Sent from my TA-1020 using Tapatalk

 

[Easy 10]

Its as I feared.

In amongst the Nations League roundup, SSN did a 10 minute+ preview / feature on the NBA, with the (obligatory) backdrop of street/hip-hop music. An extended compilation of tedious, repetative slam-dunks, and a series of interviews with blokes in sunglasses, dripping with bling. Its not even started yet, and this thing is boring the TITS off me. They're going to plug and hype this dreck to death.

Could be time to cancel.

 

[Stat Brother]

As said clips of basketball are usually pretty good:-

[tweet]1052359964067553282[/tweet]

 

[Brovion]

I genuinely don't think that's true. In fact, I think it's empirically provable that football is the best sport.

It has the fewest rules of any mainstream sport so it's easy to play and easy to learn. (unlike ,say, baseball)

You can be good at it no matter what size or build you are (small and nippy, big and powerful). (unlike, say, basketball)

The points system (goals) is the perfect balance between allowing upsets but generally rewarding the best team (unlike say rugby)

It's easy to follow visually either from the stands or on TV (unlike say ice-hockey)

It hardly requires any particular kit to play (unlike say motor-racing)

It can't be entirely distorted by performance-enhancing drugs (unlike say cycling)

No doubt there are others, but all of those are facts. I'd argue it's no coincidence that football is the global game - because it's the best. I know there are some quarters of the world where cultural bias stops football ruling supreme, like the USA, but they'll get there eventually.

I disagree. You could easily apply all your criteria to tiddlywinks, it doesn't mean it's the 'best' sport. I accept that American football is complex - but that's what makes it interesting. I can watch an NFL game between two teams I don't care about and be engrossed for three hours. I can't do that with soccer as I find it quite a boring sport to watch unless I have an interest. To widen the point: pop music is more popular than classical, but it doesn't mean it's 'better'.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

It appears that even the NBA have realised that the first three quarters are just filler and offering to let you pay to watch only the last quarter

Just about says it all really.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

So its finally happened.

Sky Sports have bought the rights to the NBA. The singlemost boring, INSUFFERABLE sport on the planet is now going to be polluting our pub screens and living rooms from Wednesday onwards. OK, I appreciate I can largely avoid this new netball channel, but you just know that from now on, SSN (which I do watch quite a bit), will be absolutely FESTOONED with highly tedious multiple updates, highlights and roundups showing us a load of 7 foot freaks jogging back and forth, nonchalantly plopping a ball into a net, for teams I have never heard of, playing a game that nobody likes, in front of an entirely indifferent and nonplussed UK audience. ANY sport that ends up with a score of 110-116 because its such a piece of PISS to score in, is by definition simply not worth watching. You might as well televise shooting fish in a barrel. I would rather spend my night watching a pan of boiled broccoli than waste it by subjecting myself to this fingers-down-the-chalkboard excruciatingly dull squeekball-fest.

Hey Sky - instead of MLS, Eredivisie and (god help us) NBA, how about getting a bit of Champions League or FA Cup football back, instead of throwing this complete and utter DRECK at us.

Sake.

Get over yourself

 

[lost in london]

Requires a now tv box doesn't it?

No, just a smart TV, or an app on your phone / ipad / tablet.

 

[Seasider78]

Sky really are losing the plot (alongside the rights to anything worth watching)

Upon receiving one of their multiple times a year price rises I had called their retention team to ask why having lost the champions league and other major events they felt the need to increase their prices given the product on offer was inferior. The guy on the other end of the phone actually tried to position the MLS as some sort of upgrade to the loss of the champions league which (after I had picked myself up off the floor laughing) I proceeded to explain was clearly not.

I get some people are fans of American sports but I would say the vast majority of Sky Sports subscribers have little or no interest in any of it. These days there is very little difference in the output for Sky Sports and Fox which is pretty poor and becoming increasingly difficult to justify the price tag they have on the channel subscription

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I see the NBA are selling final period passes for all games.

Its almost if they know its completely pointless till the last period.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

My office got tickets from one of our clients for the Nets Knicks game this Saturday. Basketball is my least favourite American sport, but there is a free bar afterwards and it’s a New York derby. What has always amazed me is the big deal they make about ‘March Madness’ in the States – can’t imagine anyone in the UK knows or even cares about this. It’s only college teams playing but gets huge coverage on TV and in the media. Horses for courses I guess.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

You're wrong and Easy is right I'm afraid. Baseball is no more shit than cricket (i.e. not shit at all), although I will say that an attritional game with pitchers on top can get a bit tiresome.

Basketball is the shittest of the American big 4 by far. With a couple of very notable exceptions, there are no world class players under the height of 6 ft 10, which just about says it all.

How can you have World Class players in a sport that is basically played in one country to any decent level

 

[Simster]

How can you have World Class players in a sport that is basically played in one country to any decent level

A bit harsh on this lot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign_NBA_players

 

[Badger]

How can you have World Class players in a sport that is basically played in one country to any decent level

Don't forget little, old Canada. Apparently the Toronto Raptors are quite good