Another Pathetic Observation

It seems like everytime there is an "incident" in the NBA, some "astute" observer of the game writes an article like this. Yeah, we know there weren't any innocent parties in the brawl. Guess what else we know...Michael Jordan wasn't/isn't a saint, Magic Johnson bumped a ref one game after blasting a teammate publicly for doing the same thing, young players tend to be jerks (give a 19 year old kid several million dollars for bouncing a ball, and it tends to affect their ego in bad ways). The so-called "good ole days" were never as great as people like to imagine they were (how was it that Magic got HIV?). Throw a bunch of human beings into the weird, money-laden life of professional sports, and you better believe that stuff like this will happen. Maybe not regularly, but it will happen. Of course, cashing in on people's alcoholic tendencies at these games doesn't help the situation, but it does give the NBA more money to pay their egomaniacs. Sounds a bit like a vicious circle.

If the NBA were actually serious about having a clean image, any technical foul/flagrant foul would mean immediate expulsion from the game and a one game suspension. If a violation isn't worth that, don't call it a technical foul, call it a foul and give the opponent free throws. The NBA won't work to clean up its image that much, though. It would have a negative effect on the incomes of those employed in the NBA. The last player to go after a fan got a $20,000 fine and a suspension. It should have been a $1,000,000 fine and an expulsion with the first appeal coming after three years (once the player is out of shape so they won't make a team anyway).

If you can't tell, I don't watch the NBA anymore. I love basketball, but I've gotten tired of watching people who make more money in a season (for playing a game) than I'll make in my lifetime. I figure if I can play, why waste time watching others get paid to do it. These days I'll watch football (I've never played organized football) or NASCAR (I'm not crazy enough to try something like that). The NBA--it's a waste, kind of like the pathetic observations from the NY Times.