dhsilv2 wrote:G35 wrote:dhsilv2 wrote:
The fans are the drivers of this with fans refusing to place any value what so ever on the regular season. If fans want player to stop load managing, they have to start caring about the games the players are taking off.
Fans would care if players cared. You can see this clearly in All Star games in the NBA, the Pro Bowl in the NFL. Before "conference pride" was a thing. Now nobody cares about conferences.
Why is the greatest rivalry in the NBA Los Angeles vs Boston. It certainly isn't geographical, there is no reason for Boston fans to hate LA fans and vice versa. The players create the rivalry, it doesn't matter if the fans do not like another fanbase, if the players are still going to act nonchalant about the games.
I would also say there is a segment of the basketball fanbase that has diluted passion and intensity in the RS:
- "Its just a RS game who cares what happens before Xmas"
- "No one cares a game that happens in the regular season"
- "This game doesn't matter, as long as we are healthy for the playoffs"
I would also say that certain coaches (Greg Popovich) helped create this ambivalent attitude towards the regular season. Fans are not a part of the game, players are and fans interest is driven by the players intensity.....
Laker and Celtic fans are rivals. The players aren't. Maybe magic and bird were or west and russel, but those guys are retired. The FANS are still rivals. Same with the NFL with Steelers and Bengals fans. No, the fans drive rivalries, not players!
Pop saw the spurs become the highest winning percentage franchise in the NBA during the regular season. So that logic makes no sense.
Fans before christmas want to avoid idiots making knee jerk reactions about how good or bad a team is before then. Nobody is saying the teams shouldn't be working or trying, but it's too soon to judge. That's the whole point of "the season doesn't start until christmas".
And nobody has ever cared about the allstar game who was over 20. The allstar game was no more fun when Wade broke Kobe's nose or kobe broke wade's...whatever. The game sucks because it's two teams who are thrown together for a meaningless game.
Sorry but again NO! Fans drive interest here and it's 100% on fans.
No, I have been part of those rivalries. As a Dodger fan, Giants-Dodgers is a huge rivalry, but I've recently gone to games in Chavez Ravine and I live an hour from Oracle park. The rivalry is nothing like it was in the 70's, 80's or even 90's. It is a watered down version. Same thing being a Raider fan. We are rivals of our entire division. I lived in CO Springs for four years and on Mondays, after the weekend games, there were fights, especially if the Raiders won. I hated John Elway.
NBA games, Sixers and Celtics were actually bigger rivals than the Lakers-Celtics, (many younger fans do not realize that). Dr. J and Larry Bird actually threw blows at each other. Andrew Toney was known as the Boston Strangler.
Those days are long gone. First off, you can't just create a rivalry, there are requirements:
- both teams have to be relatively good
- it is a big help if teams are in the same division/conference
- have star players
- meet in the playoffs and both teams have to win; if one team always wins its not a rivalry e.g. the Knicks and Bulls are not a rivalry, that was one sided; Rockets vs Warriors is not a rivalry because the Rockets never won, its why Lebron never had a rivalry team in 10 years in the Eastern conference, his teams always won
Fans enhance rivalries, that is why home court advantage was called home court advantage.
Players create rivalries and it is clear about that. This is a softer, gentler, media created NBA that does not like something as gauche as a rivalry.....
I'm so tired of the typical......