JonFromVA wrote:Random thought: The camera and our eyes tend to focus on the ball handler. I find I often have to make an effort to notice all the cuts and screens going on around the ball handler that results in an open 3 or a layup, etc.
Yup. This has always been an issue for basketball fans because much of the complexity of the possession happens where the ball isn't, but the eye focuses on the ball.
And now the issue is worse specifically because, as mentioned in the video, so much of what you need to be paying attention to in order to understand what's going on happens early in the possession, while highlights culture tends to focus in on the end of the play. Hence it's not just about the human tendency to ball-watch, it's about the habit of only focusing your attention when a shot is about to happen.
I'd draw a comparison to gridiron football. Because of the start-stop nature of football, a casual watch gives you time to rest your attention in between plays. I'd argue that casual basketball viewing has a similar habit, and that this is a bigger and bigger problem the more strategy goes into the possession in the time before the shot.
The viewers in general shouldn't be blamed for this - it should be the expectation that viewers need help in understanding what's going on there.
The maddening part is that these former players are not only not helping viewers in this regard, but are cynically trying to bash what's happening in a way that glorifies their own era. They are doing this in no small part because they themselves never had to develop the study habits they now need to keep up with the evolution of the game, and this cynical approach allows them to puff themselves up rather than admitting they've been left behind, but of course their egotistical reasons aren't the really damaging thing.
The damaging thing is that quite literally prior eras of the NBA don't actually benefit in any serious way from this approach. It's not like there's X amount of basketball dollars, and them doing this just brings more dollars to the past. No, all these guys are doing is tearing down the current NBA, which then erodes the future perception of the NBA.
Now, I don't want to talk like I'm super-worried about this, because frankly I think the globalization of the game is unstoppable, and that globalization will bring in plenty of money in the long-term.
But American ESPN and these American former players are damaging American basketball with every hot take they fart out, and that's just sad and pathetic. The Shaqs and Pierces of the world should be embarrassed that they are doing this to the sport which is the only reason they were ever special.
