For back ground, born in Wisconsin and moved to Florida as a kid in 1980. Loved the packers, Milwaukee bucks, and Milwaukee brewers. As a kid, baseball was my favorite but tried to follow,my home state teams and loved all of them. went to UF 87-91 and after leaving UF, college football became my favorite sport by far, followed by nfl. Loved college basketball since 1982 but big UF hoops fan after attending. around 2000- estimating - the nba refereeing and admitted star favoritism started to consume the game (to me). For many other combined reasons I just lost interest. In the 80s I followed my bucks with Sidney moncrief and jr Bridgman and terry cummings, etc and then in 90s with ray allen and big dog robinson etc. however, even though Milwaukee is great now and the Greek freak is a good dude on top of a great player, I did not watch one second of my home state team winning the finals last year. No interest. im there with baseball too. Brewers with yount and molitor and Cooper in early 80s was my life, lol. Loved the late 80s teams too. They stunk for two decades and while ow good, I maybe tune into 3 innings per year. pretty much only follow nfl and college football and college hoops these days.
If this is your reason, I think you are imagining a boogeyman that doesn’t exist. What are the other reasons? I can’t believe you would miss out on most of Kobe, all of Lebron, all of Stephen Curry, all of Wade, all of CP3, all of Giannis, KD, etc… Just bizarre to me. If you haven’t seen Curry get hot and go on a shooting spree, you are missing the highest level shooting of all time.
Sorry off topic, but I have a similar story. Born in Iowa, spent first 13 yrs in Illinois and moved to Naples as a kid in 1983. Didn't have the same love for IL sports teams; there was more in Wisconsin at that time. I did like the Bears, though they weren't my favorite. The Bulls were non-factor back then. Side note: First NFL game was '85 Bears @ Miami. Side note 2: Had Bucs season tickets '97-'07 saw lotta epic Favre/Bucs battles, not to mention the Vikings with Daunte Culpepper and Randy Moss. The Packers always brought WAY more fans than any other team. They always had a presence in Tampa, whether at the Sombrero, or at the RayJay.
He had disgruntled players who have all become toxic wherever they play in Westbrook and Durant. Chicago has not made a serious commitment to get to a playoff game let alone win a playoff game since Rose, Noah, Boozer, and Deng. Billy has restored a winning mentality in the city. If it can be sustained, it will take them deeper into the playoffs in the ensuing years.
to each his own. Some people like Harry Potter books. Some like murder mystery. I just lost interest in the nba. I am not the only one. The nba finals used to average 30 plus million per game until 2000. Now it’s a third of that. Can’t really explain it..,I just grew up and at about 30 years old other things more interesting to me. But your statement about star treatment …I disagree with. When I watched nba…palming the ball is brutal and never called, traveling left and right and no calls, I remember seeing the end of a kings lakers playoff game I think in. 2004 while out at a bar and Kobe Bryant elbows Doug christie in the chin - foul on Christie. Refs called like 33 fouls to give lakers a Victory to prevent elimination and books by two refs years later included that game as an example of being told to make calls a certain way (could be false,and could be true - but I saw the calls and was shocked while,drinking my Guinness). That is star treatment at its best. I was working in Miami during the shaq/wade years and Lebron years and had zero interest. Even though I loved wade at Marquette since my mom was a professor there. in most sports, due to the high $ players make, they really - to my eye - don’t care as much if they end up on the losing end. Nba players are mostly buddy buddy win or lose. Ncaa tourney … players are routinely devastated after losing. Nba mlb and pretty much all professional sports, very few care because they make so much money either way. At least that is what I see. Just my opinion. More and more athletes play the game for $ vs love for it. Just the way it is. One thing I like about the Greek freak - reading stories about him…he refuses to play and train with Lebron and other stars in the off season. Says something to the effect that why would he play with and be buddy buddy with my enemy. I also dislike the nba game experience. They pretty much run all kinds of non sport related stuff the entire game. The Heat have a DJ playing music often during the actual action and I have heard games on tv - same thing. Spurs, mavs, whomever…basketball is like the last thing going on. Due to football having so few games compared to other sports it also lends itself to every game having meaning vs nba and baseball. For baseball, the 1994 strike did lessen my interest. Not consciously but did notice my interest wane after that. Attended marlins World Series in 1997 since never know if I had another opportunity to go to World Series games. But with baseball, with no real salary cap and fan of small market teams (brewers and marlins) it is still possible to win but you are basically a farm team for large markEts. Boring. While living in south Florida I am a packers season ticket holder (inherited from my father), a gator football season ticket holder, and I watch every gator mens hoops game. With two kids in k-12 that is enough sport for me.
I went to several packers at bucs game as easier to get to tampa from south Florida than green bag. Packers used to routinely have like 10,000 tickets or more until bucs for good and they cut that off.
I am not wrong about star treatment in the NBA. You don’t watch it anymore, so how could you really know? It’s not that stars don’t get calls, but it happens in all sports at all levels. Don’t we argue about Duke and Kentucky getting all the calls? We going to just ignore that now? Jordan and other 80’s stars got favorable calls, too. It didn’t start in the 2000’s. But it’s not enough to detract from the game like you are suggesting. As far as players not caring, I don’t think you can say that with any evidence. College players get devastated in a different way, because oftentimes it’s likely their last chance at success before they get a job selling insurance, plus they have fewer chances. Also, it’s a single elimination tournament, so the loss is more sudden and emotional. I think your real problem is you are pocket watching the players. The money they make bothers you.
The money they make doesn’t bother me. On a personal note, I am not as successful as say an nba all star but I did well enough to retire at 43 and live a fun life with my spouse an kids, living in south Florida and traveling (well, pre Covid anyway) to Europe and elsewhere every summer. I don’t begrudge others for making money. Good for them. But when many people make tons of money, that burning desire for effort and to be the best can lessen - its human nature. Hell, happened to me - it’s one reason why I left my profession/job. I do think that there is a difference between nba players today and 20 years ago. Outside of a hug here and there, you didn’t see 80’s and 90s players exchanging jerseys or hugging and hanging out after games, smiling after losses and just moving on. They didn’t train all summer with each other and hang out in clubs and pools. They pretty much acted as if others were trying to steal their paychecks. Seemed to genuinely dislike anyone not on their team. Losses stuck in their craw. You are correct that I am not an expert in the nba and nba players these days since don’t watch it. Sitting in an Irish pub at noon today drinking a Guinness and espn is on showing draft and nba highlights - they spent some time mentioning and joking about “a travel call in an nba playoff game? One of the rarest thing you will ever see!” As they then show several uncalled travels in the same game. This is more nba discussion then I’ve had in decades. Lol. Time for another round of Guinness. Have a great weekend!
Almost stopped reading when I saw retired at 43. I’m jealous! Sometimes, I think I should have done my 20 years active-duty and retired at 42. As it stands, I’ll do 25 years mixed active-duty/reserves and I won’t draw a military retirement check unless I make it to 60 years old. At least my civilian career has been very good to this point. Good discussion, brother. Enjoy that Guiness!
He has bounced around, and despite his immense talent, has only experienced success when he affiliated with a star-studded franchise that had won a championship before him, and probably could have continued to win without him. Rifts with Westbrook, rifts with Green, and rifts with Harden in Brooklyn (and probably at OKC). Would that constitute toxic? Maybe not! But it is about as close to it as you can get for someone who only won a championship when he had the best offensive backcourt in basketball history.
Billy did an amazing job with the Bulls last year. I think their improvement in Wins/Losses from the previous year (before he joined) was the best in the league. If ANYTHING it has all but cemented his place as a permanent NBA coach, which is exceeeeeedingly difficult in today's NBA. His legendary status continues...and he'll never look back on a career and say "what if"
You had me at retirement checks. Any job/career that pays you a pension is worth it's weight in gold, especially in this low interest and high inflation environment. You'll have decades of stress-free life ahead of you
Billy’s contract paid more in 5 years than he would have made in 10 at UF. More security for family and no need to recruit teens wanting coaches to kiss their a$$ or pay people under the table. NIL is now another reason to coach in the pros. I’m sure Jay Wright was sick of these issues at Villanova as well
Here's what kills me about the NBA. Take the top 50 point scorers in the postseason. The average amount of years they spend with a team is just a hair under 3.7. A total of 103 different teams over a total of 380 seasons. The turnover is way too high to even think about being invested in a given team. Only 20% of that top 50 average more than 5 years per team and have spent it with that team for their entire career. I don't know how those numbers compare with other sports, but I know that it has changed substantially in basketball. Is the game still interesting? Absolutely, particularly in the playoffs. But I'm nowhere close to settling on a team to root for that would draw my interest on a consistent basis. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Unfortunately the other guy is the one getting the retirement checks now, not me. I have to wait until 60. But... with my military pension, my civilian retirement accounts, and VA disability, I should be pretty well set at that age!
If someone said that Billy D. should replace Cal at Kentucky, I would say yes. Billy D. is not a perfect coach, but I think he is good. I will take him at my school.
Bouncing around to different teams doesn't really make him toxic. He has been successful everywhere he has played lol, championships aren't the only measure of success. Rifts with Westbrook and Draymond -- that is more on those two than KD. Harden? That was more to do with Kyrie, which when Harden started loafing in practice and not playing due to "injury" KD rightfully called him out. I also don't think Harden is toxic, but I think it was an extremely difficult situation for KD to approach and chose not to express his feelings about it to Kyrie in public because he knows it is a losing game. And yeah, as I pointed out earlier it is nearly impossible to win an NBA title without two top 5-7 caliber players on your roster...so not being able to win a title outside of with Golden State (where he was the Finals MVP on both teams) isn't really a knock on KD, it's more of a reflection of how talented the NBA is.
