Top 10 Reasons Basketball Will Be Americas #1 Sport in 5 Years
June 24th, 2008 | by ethanator1088 |First let me explain that it is a 3 sport race. Soccer is laughingly not one of those three. Baseball, Football, and Basketball are the top three. NASCAR has a strong following, but you can not NASCAR in your back yard. Football has the edge over the big three right now, but that will change. Let’s get right into the meat of this Top 10 list.
10. The NBA finally added the age restriction. We were all sick of seeing Kuame Brown’s ride the bench and never making it. Now the NBA scouts are seeing the players one more year on a higher level of play. They see players blossom and they see some tank. I think the Kuame Brown effect will seriously taper. Honestly, I know that the players are not learning anything in their half year at college. I know it is a minor league system for the pros. I am OK with that. That leads us to our next reason
9. Not only are the NBA scouts seeing the players develop, so are we. We get to see these players at our favorite colleges, favorite conferences, big Dance, the Sweet Sixteen, and the Final Four. We are one step closer to maybe having a Magic/Bird type rivalry come out of college and into the pros. When we see the players go through college it brings us closer to the game. That is something that the NFL had on the NBA, and the NBA is catching up.
8. TNT Inside the NBA crew with Ernie, Kenny and Charles Barkley. America loves Charles Barkley. The whole crew does an amazing job of keeping each other straight and being very funny. They usually have a fourth wheel that can be Magic Johnson, Reggie Miller, or some other coach/player that has gone fishing. The TNT crew is not just good. It is Iconic. Baseball and Football have nothing like it.
7. Basketball Blogs have so much access. They have so much to cover. There is always something going on in the world of basketball and the blogs cover it to a T. I will go over why they have so much more to cover later in the top ten. The number 7 spot is for the blogs. Let me give you a quick run down of just a few STELLAR basketball blogs.
6. Dwight Howard
5. Chris Paul
4. LeBron James. Those three superstars have charisma, talent, and what the French call a ” je ne se qua”. I do not know what, that means. There are many rising stars but those three have that extra something special. I see those three standing the test of time and being great for the next 15 years. As a side note, there is a chance that Greg Oden is everything he was said to be. It will be a very slim chance that he will play injury free though.
3. The Boston Three Party, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. As long as the three Amigos can stick together, we will have a team that almost everyone can find a reason to pull for. Kevin Garnett’s chest pounding will get annoying, but him hugging Bill Russell at half court will not.
2. Youtube/Videos. This goes back to reason 7. The bloggers have so much to cover because of the access they have via Youtube and a great media policy that the league seems to have. MLB and NFLhave a very stringent Youtube policy. You can not find a clip of Joey Gathright jumping over a Dodgers Pitcher. You can not find a great clip of Joe Namath playing. The MLB and NFL are seriously dropping the ball when it comes to the Internet. The Internet is the number one source for showing off your sport. I can watch highlights of Kobe’s 81 point game in the middle of July. I can watch clips of Bruce Bowen kicking people anytime I want. The NBA is letting Youtube market their sport. That sounds smart.
1. Odenized- Odenized is a humble blog written and created by a gentleman named Ryne Nelson. A humble, yet powerful name in the Internet world of basketball. He has single handedly brought us the best Youtube Basketball clips on his blog. His videos are mostly not highlights. He takes snippets of the life of the game and shows a different side of basketball. When he makes a video, people know it is better than the highlight that they will see on ESPN. They know that he caught the best moment. Odenized is the perfect culmination of youtube and blogs that is why he comes in at number 1. Just as a hunch, but I think Awful Announcing could do wonders for the game of baseball, if MLB understood anything about marketing itself on the Intraweb.
Why did I put Odenized #1? It is not just what he has done, but what the success of the blog represents. Basketball is wildly successful. His videos go to the front page of all the social media networking sites. The Odenized blog and his videos wild success is proof that America loves Basketball and Basketball owns the Internet. If you are still confused about the Odenized blog, think of it as a mini Basketball TV station on the Internet.
The MLB and NFL think that the Internet is trying to hurt their sport. They make sure that not even 1 five second clip is on the web. While they try to fight the Internet, the NBA is embracing it and it owns the Internet. The Internet and a great influx of talent will put the NBA in the #1 spot.
As a disclaimer: I am a college football fan. I do not have a dog in this fight.
Popularity: 10% [?]
11 Responses to “Top 10 Reasons Basketball Will Be Americas #1 Sport in 5 Years”
By Jason Peck on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
What are you basing your argument that the top 3 sports are football, baseball and basketball? Youth participation? TV numbers? Revenue? Just curious…
Do you think football’s popularity will decrease or do you think basketball is just going to get so much more popular that it will overtake football?
By turfwarriors.blogspot.com on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
4 Reasons Basketball Won’t Be:
1. too many prison tatoos more easily seen than on football players
2. crooked and/or unqualified referees will continue to ruin credibility
3. too much appeal to hip hop community, which the majority of people 30 or over will never embrace
4. guaranteed contracts. a player can sign a fat 5 year deal and know he can’t get fired without still getting paid. See Tim Thomas, Lamar Odom, etc. guys that just collect a check. NFL can fire anyone, anytime. See Terrell Owens, Michael Vick.
I could keep going but I don’t want this to be too long.
By IFChris on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
Number 11 - It’s history is as rich and entertaining as the MLB. Sure, baseball historians are much more romantic about the past, but when a sport has a past that includes Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. J, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell (to name a few), it means your sport has the ability to resonate across multiple generations.
However, I’m not sure any sport is going to “beat” the NFL. It’s the perfect sport for this time and age — not too long, not an everyday thing (unless you are playing FF) and it’s become as much a Sunday tradition as church.
By MoonDog on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
Blasphemy! LOL. Football is king and will remain that way for infinity. Other than March Madness, I don’t bother. The NBA is a complete bore. It’s like watching golf and soccer on amphetamines.
Nice scribble.
By ethanator1088 on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
Jason. I am basing it off of overall numbers. Those are the big three. And I think that Basketball will overtake football. I think football will slow down its growth but not go down.
Turf Warrior. Good points, but
1. The Tatts are everywhere now.
2. The Ref question will be there for every sport.
3. Stern is working on the hip hop thing and it is kind of working.
4. There are ups and downs of that arguement.
IfChris. Good points.
Thank you all very much for the comments.
By ethanator1088 on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
Moondog. I like football more, but the world thinks differently. The internet thinks differently.
The NBA is playing for keeps. They know how to market themselves.
By desean on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
yea the internet is the best thing to get on when im bored
By dickey simpkins on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
Football will never be overtaken. It’s perfect for the millions of people with short attention spans. It’s 16 games, then a month of playoffs, then the Super Bowl. Fandom is based on teams, not individual players as NBA is. Brett Favre retired, but the Packers will still sell out their games, but there were probably 10 Cavs fans before LeBron was drafted.
Basketball gets more negative press than any sport. The players are highly visible, and White America loves to label them as “thugs” since hip hop culture and basketball has always had a special relationship.
By ethanator1088 on Jun 25, 2008 | Reply
Mr. Simpkins. Basketball will grow very strong if they stop the expansions. The level of play will rise. People will actually learn how to shoot jumpers. More players will stay in college if they are not guaranteed first round picks. I think they can take over Football in a few years.
As for the “Thug” thing. It is what it is. I do not like Ron Artect type antics, but I think most players are low key. The league looks 10 times better since the dress code.
By Ryne Nelson on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Ethan, I can’t thank you enough. It’s also blogger like you who (no matter what sport dominates in 10 years) inspire us to start new blogs and/or continue for the long haul. Excellent post!
By ethanator1088 on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Thanks R. Nelly. Great work does not go unnoticed my friend.