are ratings down because of............

[DenisGScott]

Got woken up this morning had to bring my wife her blood pressure meds at work and was listening to 610am talking about the ratings being down in the tank for the finals.  One caller called in close to 9am and said it's NOT that the teams play this "great defense" but that the players today simply can't hit a 15-18 foot jump shot  which I agree with.  Are they better athletes today, yes.  Better basketball players, no.  And to take it one step further I think basketball as a sport has turned off the average white fan, and like it or not the majority of people with disposable income who could go to these games are white-collar predominately white working people, not all but the majority there of who aren't part of come corporate ticket deal.  And if you look thru the stats as I did when I got home of the top 100 scoring leaders in the NBA this year, only 5 are true American white players.  If you count Steve Nash (he is Canadian) that makes 6.  The other 5 are Mike Miller from Memphis who was 37th at 18.5ppg in a small market, Kirk Hinrich from Chicago 56th at 16.6, Wally Szczerbiak from Boston who is by far at the tail end of his career only played in 32 games but averaged 15.0 placing him 69th, Kyle Korver from Philadelphia 14.4 ranking 74th and Mike Dunleavy 97th at 12.8. 

You could make the argument that Hinrich is the only one who plays for a major market team in the Bulls.  But when there are only 5 out of the top 100 and 1 in the top 50 (Miller) the average white male doesnt relate to the sport anymore.  Yes the European players may be better than the players coming out of college but that doesnt mean the population relates to them. 

When basketball was at its peak to me going back about 20 years, you had Bird (granted I never liked him) and his teams going to the playoffs and finals constantly, after him Detroit was the big deal and though Laimbeer was never a premier player people knew who he was.  Chicago finally took over in the east and then look at the teams they faced in the west the Lakers were the Lakers, Phoenix had Dan Majerle, Utah had John Stockton.  The Bulls themselves had John Paxson and Steve Kerr. 

When you add all that together with bad fundamental basketball, is it really any wonder that ratings are in the tank??

[NedDog]

Ya know, that is one of the many reasons I love the Spurs.  They are a team of classy players, not thugs or thug-wanna-be's.  Yes, Bruce Bowen can be a bully on the court, but he's not a thug.  Tim Duncan is without a doubt the classiest player in the NBA, & team mates Parker & Ginobli are not far behind.  Except for the few seasons he spent on the dark side (in L.A.), Robert Horry has always been one of my favorite players. 

The national media can't stand it that the Spurs are so good, possibly because they don't have a thug-type player that they can keep in off-the-court headlines.  I really don't know what the media's reason is, but I do know that the Spurs are the NBA team I can most relate to, simply because they are comprised of a likeable group of nice guys.  Well, that and they are  in TEXAS!! 

[move]GO SPURS GO!!  2007 WORLD CHAMPIONS!![/move]