NBA観戦記〜New York Knicks & Indiana Pacers @ Madison Square Garden 1/2/2009〜

This card once was one of the largest clashes in the eastern conference, but now, both of two teams suffer their bad seasons. When I was in high school, Patrick Ewing played in Knicks and Reggie Miller played in Pacers. They couldn't reach rings finally, but are superstars in the history of NBA.

Now, there are no such heroes in these teams.

Al Harrington played very well for Knicks, who started his carrier in Pacers, but he is far from those legendary players. And also, Knicks has some strategic problems, especially defensive ones are serious. There were five players who wore the uniform of Knicks, but there were no team at all.

And Pacers doesn't have any outstanding skillful players. Pacers' strategy is collective enough, but has no forward player who is good at isolation. Pacers traded out Jamaine O'neil in the middle of the season, which means they are "under construction".

Those conditions made the game so boring, which irritated me. I talked a lot to the weird man sitting next to me. He really loved Basketball and we shared the frustrations.

The game ended up with dramatic finish. Pacers scored 2 points in the last second, which divided winner and loser. But on the whole, I was so much disappointed.

One more thing I want to underline here is the consumption culture in America. They always make noise and screen shows CMs, events and etc. not to get audience bored. If the game itself is interesting, we don't need these kind of silly events or something. In European countries, the football stadiums are basically very quiet because fans concentrate on the ball game itself. But, it was clear that Americans paralyzed the flood of information and felt it was comfortable.

Maybe I will not go to see NBA games anymore, because it was a kind of show, but not a sport. I like basketball itself as a sport, but hate the show business in America.