Where Did Basketball Go?

[Bribie G]

Disclaimer: I don't follow sport in general (love the Olympics, le Tour etc but that's it), however this afternoon I was driving along the Esplanade on the way to the barber to make myself look pretty for the BABBs evening, :wub: and passed a few abandoned looking basketball courts, despite the fact that school had just chucked out. Got me thinking.

Back in the Nineties, whenever you turned on the TV it was Brisbane Bullets, Sydney Kings, nerve shattering squeaky shoes, Brian Kerle in his silver business suit that they all used to wear with his stupidly gelled hair, fannying around on the sidelines....... Andrew Gaze with his greying hair counselling kids........... Basketball had been claimed by the kids as their sport, bugger the oldies with their passe cricket and football, move over dudes this is the future of sport. After School, every council built court would be full of impossibly tall adolescents going squeak squeak bump bump.

So there should now be a solid cohort of people in their late twenties and thirties with basketball as their top sport. Hasn't happened. Was it just a fashion 'spike' with the kids or did the basketball association do something stupid and commit suicide? Puzzling.

 

[bum]

People realised that you-score-we-score is boring.

 

[Adamt]

Slamball > basketball.

 

[bum]

Yeah, I dunno about that. Have you ever watched it? They somehow added trampolines and made it even more boring. I still can't work it out but it is true.

Does remind me of Baseketball though.

 

[Renegade]

Anyone watched a Murderball match ?

 

[bum]

Only the doco. Much more interesting than basketball (but not as funny as Baseketball).

 

[tcraig20]

I just dont think its trendy to emulate Americans at the moment.

 

[AndrewQLD]

I remember well going to the Sydney Kings games, a whole lot of fun and really exciting all the way from start to finish, but that was live, court side.
It's just not the same on TV, actually it's pretty boring on TV, and it never really caught on here in Oz like it has done in the USA.

Andrew

 

[bum]

It's just not the same on TV, actually it's pretty boring on TV

This is probably as close as an answer to BribieG's question as anyone is going to get. If even the people who like the sport don't think it is worth watching on TV then how is it to thrive as a national competition?

 

[Josh]

Michael Jordan retired for good, San Antonio bored their way to 5 NBA titles and channel 10 dropped the sport from the rotation.

An okay local league wasn't enough to keep everyone interested, especially when it was only on pay tv.

With One HD getting into it and more people having pay tv the NBA is more accessible again. That plus the fact the NBA is back to its entertaining best. The last playoffs were the best I can remember.

It's hard to see the sport returning to the level it was in the 90s, but I think at the grass roots level it is still alive and kicking. Only this evening I was happy to see a few 5 on 5 half court games at Merrylands Park.

I talk more about NBA than NBL because that is what I was watching on tv more so than the NBL. I was a Kings fan until the Razorbacks came in. I went to a fair few Pigs games but once interest in the NBA waned, the NBL followed suit, in my eyes at least.

EDIT: NBL stuff

 

[buttersd70]

It's just not the same on TV, actually it's pretty boring on TV

I think that's hit the nail on the head....I never watch sport on TV (apart from boxing, sometimes (in the lower weight classes). And darts, of course. Any sport that is 2 fat Yorkshiremen with pints in hand, throwing sharpened sticks at a wall is brilliant in my book. :lol: ). I used to play lots of sports, at various levels, but have never really had too much of an interest in watching it on tv....

 

[churchy]

I think when Michael Jorden retired the marketing dropped off in Australia.I remember when channel seven had the rights basketball was huge and constantly there would be 8 or 9 thousand people going to a Wildcats game at the Entertainment Center(which is now buldozed).



Andrew

 

[peas_and_corn]

There was a brief infatuation with basketball, in SA there was a significant audience interested in the sport, especially with the success of the 36ers. However, interest waned and when the rights dropped off free to air, the sport started dying a slow death. IIRC the leage has been 'rebooted' this year, with associated debates about whether the 36ers are financially viable enough to join.

 

[tcraig20]

I am a little suprised that the current Obamarama and his concominant love of the basketball hasnt sparked a little interest in the game.