It was at about 1 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day when my entire identity as a basketball fan was effectively summed up. The Bulls had just finished brushing aside the Memphis Grizzlies, and a matchup between No. 7 Villanova and No. 8 Connecticut was set to immediately follow on ESPN.
Sounds like a pretty good game, right? Two Big East powerhouses ranked side by side in the top 10, with a little bit of Kemba Walker on the side? It was a college hoops fan’s dream.
But then came the tipoff. A few minutes passed by, and already I was feeling restless. The remote was calling for me.
I decided to do a quick overview of the NBA games that were on my NBA League Pass channels. Everything looked pretty routine until … “Dear god, Blake Griffin already has 20 points? In the first half?”
Finally, I had my excuse. Abandoning Villanova-Connecticut, I immediately flipped to Clippers-Pacers. (Yes, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Indiana Pacers. I’m fully aware of how ignorant this sounds.)
In the end, like it always does, the NBA won me over. I couldn’t resist the possibility that Griffin would posterize the entire Pacers team with one dunk, even if I knew that there was a distinct possibility that I would be blinded by the contrast created between the court and all of Indiana’s white players.
To be clear, Griffin has this effect on a lot of fans. He has single-handedly molded the also-ran Clippers into must-see television on any given night.
Yet, my situation on that day highlights one of the great arguments in sports today. College or professional basketball?
Unlike football, which seems to have plenty of fans on both sides of the fence (including myself), basketball creates a distinct schism between the college and professional ranks. NCAA fans argue that theirs is the purer form of basketball, where defense matters and the outcomes of games are determined by teamwork rather than individual play.
NBA defenders like me, on the other hand, point to the brilliant flair displayed by a league that is overflowing with bright, young talent. They implore you to take notice of the perfect balance between aging, still productive legends (Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan) and burgeoning talents desperate to reach the top of the mountain (Kevin Durant, Amare Stoudemire, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose).
Most importantly, as Bill Simmons has been known to say, NBA fans enjoy watching basketball at its “highest level.” I’m sorry, but you’re not going to convince me that a 71-70 final score is A) enjoyable to watch or B) basketball in its purest and best form.
I watch college basketball for five minutes and get dizzy trying to follow the ball around as it is passed back and forth at the top of the key. Possessions are too long and the game rarely seems to follow a distinct flow.
To be fair, college basketball is in a particularly bad place right now, thanks in part to the NBA. When David Stern raised the minimum NBA age to 19, he inadvertently (one would hope) obliterated college basketball as we once knew it. Programs are now chocked full of guys who will stay for one year and jump to the NBA. There is no continuity, and it is difficult to become attached to any one team before it is entirely disbanded.
If we’re going to force players to go to college, it has to be for at least two years. End of story. But that’s a column for another day.
Right now, at this moment (and probably forever, for that matter), give me the NBA over college hoops any day. On that Monday afternoon, Connecticut defeated ‘Nova 61-59. Quite a barn burner. Walker hit a game-winner, which was certainly exciting but also something I could easily watch on SportsCenter later in the evening.
The Clipper game? Griffin ended up with 47 points and 14 rebounds in a contest that went down to the wire. Both teams scored more than 100 points. And, right after that, Magic-Celtics came on.
I rest my case.
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