Love of the Game

I always figured that because my Dad loved basketball, I ended up loving it as well. As the years passed I wondered why I would stick with basketball above all other teams sports. Lot of initial thoughts popped up: basketball is a great TV sport as the athlete's athleticism clearly shows. Some other sports this isn't the case - hockey doesn't translate the speed from the ice to the small screen well IMO, soccer it's difficult when you can only see a small portion of the pitch to really get an idea of the action. This is a problem with football as well on TV for me as the camera tends to focus at the area around the line of scrimmage and you can miss recievers etc on the field (overall though football is obviously a great TV sport). Baseball and golf seem like better radio sports as you can do something else waiting for things to happen.

Not to say other team sports don't have positives versus basketball. Fantasy is much funner with football and the stats are better representative of actual performance in baseball then any other sports. Football also has the strategy factor as the coach impacts a game of football more then any other manager in any other sport.

However basketball has one one more plus that seems to relatively unique to it. Above all other team sports, basketball requires the individual to balance being a great individual player versus a great team player. Obviously, every team sport requires individuals to do things that benefits the team more then a player (i.e. a wide receiver blocking) but nothing quite like basketball. In basketball, a player has to decide every time when he gets the ball essentially to do something himself or give it up to a teammate. This puts enormous stress on star players in particular. For example, let's say Kobe Bryant has the ball should he shoot the tough turn around jumper or pass it to the guy who has the open shot. That sounds like a no brainer at first but what if the open player well sucks and has high percentage chance of missing an even open shot? Plus, in basketball a great individual performer can simply will a team to win. It can't happen consistently but you can have games like in Game of the ECF last year where Lebron basically carried his team over the Pistons singlehandedly by scoring 25 straight points.

Now you can have a great quarterback performance in football but you need receivers to get open and most important an offensive line blocking for you. Pitchers, I think are the one case where one individual can have a bigger impact then a basketball player in the zone. But here's the rub the pitcher the better he pitches doesn't have think about at all involving other players. In basketball, even a player who is red hot has to be concerned about throwing up a "heat check" or actually getting the ball to others . If you don't, then you end up getting a stagnant offense where everyone is just watching the guy holding the ball and team overall doesn't perform overall well as defenses simply start keying on the one player. That player then has to decide whether to jack it up or keep his teammates involved. In this way, basketball closely mirrors real life in that as a social creature we have to balance doing what's best not only for us but what is best for larger societal groups: should I pay for that song on itunes or go to the latest kazaa like download, eat the last piece of pie or leave it for somebody else, stop for the stalled car on the side of the road or make it to work on time, etc.