If the Celtics didn't exist, would you follow the NBA?

[timpiker]

No, I wouldn't nor do I follow the NBA at all....except for the C's.  I only watch the C's.  I hate the NBA and 99% of what it stands for and a lot of the players.  I'm pretty much the same with all sports.  Its my teams ( that I've rooted for for over 50 years.)  or nothing.  As far as I'm concerned all the sports leagues could go under and I'd feel much better about life.

[hwangjini_1]

no.

i consider nba basketball to be unwatchable as a sport. to be honest, the best basketball to watch, for me, is college women's teams. they pass, they play team offense and defense, and work so hard at it.

You should watch the Bellarmine men’s team (the team that barely dribbles). Super interesting style

ha. i just watched a few videos of them a little while ago and you are correct. they are fun to watch.

[Kuberski33]

I'm a lifelong basketball fan going back to the Dave Cowens era as a kid. I played a lot as a kid, played in HS, heavily involved with youth basketball as an adult. That said beyond the Celtics I might watch the Thursday night TNT games because I enjoy their studio crew. But I don't watch other teams and really can't sit through more than a few minutes of a non-Celtics game.

To me it's kind of boring. I get that the 3 point shot allows the little guy to play but I miss the bigs. And pass it around till someone shoots a 3 - as someone mentioned, everyone kind of plays the same style and it's just not interesting to me. 

Some of it may be my age and just having watched so much in the past. There are some very talented players in the league right now. I watched Luka in person the other night and really enjoyed that. He's something else - as is Morant and a few other guys around the league. And the guy we have here, Tatum, has the whole package right now.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

I love the little things. The NBA still does the little things at the highest level with the highest amount of athleticism. Defensive rotations can be off by inches and therefore lead to a basket. A pass can be a split second late a miss an easy opportunity. The timing of screens has to be almost perfect for an offense to flow quickly.

I also love watching player development. It's been really fun for me to watch Jaylen Brown manipulate a defense, not just for his own buckets, and not just for one-pass away assists, but for two or three pass away shots. I love development so much that JD Davison is already one of my favorite players to monitor closely.

I will admit that I miss a variety of basketball schemes. Group think is pretty evident in NBA circles. The little hiccups are always interesting in the NBA, but I would love for teams to bring different offensive and defensive schemes to the game. The problem is that at this level, the margin for error is so small. Still, I think there is room for large innovation (or returning to previous strategies).

[RockinRyA]

Im a basketball fan in general so like I said, Id probably still be watching but be a fan of another team instead.

I wasnt always a Celtic fan. During my childhood I was a fan of the Sonics (Kemp and Payton years). It was during PP's rookie years I became a full time Celtics fan

[BitterJim]

Im a basketball fan in general so like I said, Id probably still be watching but be a fan of another team instead.

I wasnt always a Celtic fan. During my childhood I was a fan of the Sonics (Kemp and Payton years). It was during PP's rookie years I became a full time Celtics fan

I was just thrown off by your number of posts vs. how long Pritchard has been on the team, it took me a minute to remember the most significant PP in Celtics history.

I feel like I need to rewatch some 2008 highlights as penance lol

[Moranis]

I love basketball, so yeah I'd be a fan.  Would most likely be whatever team my father rooted for since that is how I became a Celtics fan, but without his influence, I'd have probably been a Pacers or Pistons fan growing up as a kid.  If I grew up where I live now it would have been the Cavs, but they weren't super popular in my area during my formative years. 

[mef730]

Probably not.

I went to college in Philly and used to go to games against the Celtics and games against the Bulls, so I could watch Michael Jordan play. I can't think of anyone who I'd tune into the game for today.

Mike

[Chief]

Living in TN, I'd probably become a Grizzlies fan.

[JSD]

I fell in love with basketball in 1992 during the Bulls Vs Blazers series. I started following the Celtics the next season because they were the local team. My friend’s father told me all about the history, and I was even more excited. I’ll never forget my first Celtics heartbreak in the 1993 playoffs. Alonzo hit that dagger. Celtics, down 1, had .03 to inbound the ball, Kevin McHale to Dee Brown on an alley, just missed. Series over. I watched every second intently.

Obviously some down years after that so I just followed the league in general. I still remember being overly excited for Eric Montross an AC Earl. Anyway, yeah, I think I would still follow the league no matter what.

I’m surprised how many people are so down on the league right now, I think it’s never been better. There’s so much talent.

[JSD]

Okay so it was .04 left, should have been almost a full second, too bad they didn’t have replay back then.

Looks like a goal-tend too at the end. Rough one to lose.

https://youtu.be/Qg2by5_m28g

[freshinthehouse]

I fell in love with basketball in 1992 during the Bulls Vs Blazers series. I started following the Celtics the next season because they were the local team. My friend’s father told me all about the history, and I was even more excited. I’ll never forget my first Celtics heartbreak in the 1993 playoffs. Alonzo hit that dagger. Celtics, down 1, had .03 to inbound the ball, Kevin McHale to Dee Brown on an alley, just missed. Series over. I watched every second intently.

Obviously some down years after that so I just followed the league in general. I still remember being overly excited for Eric Montross an AC Earl. Anyway, yeah, I think I would still follow the league no matter what.

I’m surprised how many people are so down on the league right now, I think it’s never been better. There’s so much talent.

I'm not to far off from this, JSD.  While as a little kid I always rooted for Boston, the 90-91 team was the one that really got me hooked.  Since I grew up 2000 miles away from Boston and didnt have cable, I had to rely on newspaper box scores and the occasional NBA Inside Stuff highlight to feed my addiction.

Also, I agree with you on the current NBA.  I love basketball, and I think that the NBA still offers the best product.  I enjoy college ball, but its far too much, walk it up the court, and wait for the coach to call the play.  And the nba has never been better IMO.  I believe that people that pine for the 80s are looking at it with rose colored glasses.  Sure, the C's, LAL, Sixers, were great, but the lower and mid-level teams were dreck back then.  Guys are fare more committed to the game now then they were back then.  Guys care way more about their bodies, there are far fewer knuckleheads in the game.  Bird talked about that in an interview he gave when he ran the Pacers.  back then a lot of guys were just give me my check and leave me alone.  Nowadays a lot of players are very civically minded. 

[ETNCeltics]

Hard to answer. I became a Celtics fan when I was a wee lad, because my mother was. Some other person or event would've probably drawn me to another team when I was young because I loved sports so much.

But today, were the Celtics to cease to exist tomorrow, I wouldn't follow the sport at all.

[SHAQATTACK]

I would leave home go to convent and become a Nun ….

 

 

[JLssg4]

For me it's an easy "no".

I can't think of anyone in my extended family who is or was a dedicated NBA fan...I certainly didn't have any 'family team' to root for (or rebel from) growing up.  Couple that with there only being time for one winter sport as a kid, and I was about as far from a fan as possible.  I hopped on the bandwagon with Pierce and Garnett, but just a quickly lost interest.  It must have been '15-'16 season that I started catching a game here or there again (east-coast starts on Bruins off-days).  '16-'17 was the first year I'd qualify for 'fan-dom' as I watched pretty regularly, and it was pretty hard not too fall in love with that group of underdogs.

If it wasn't for the C's (and Isaiah+Smart grabbing my attention) I'm not sure I'd be watching any basketball outside of March Madness.

The product leaves much to be desired....but I don't think it's anything too novel.  Partnerships with entities whose goals conflict with the purity of your sport.  Iterate those negotiations and compromises over a few decades and all the cards seem to be in the network's hands, and you're left with superstar calls and managed games.