Brick posted Leitch's Deadspin column in the Trump thread, but embedded in it was something he wrote for
New York magazine about the death of the NFL (maybe millennials killed it, lol):
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... e-nfl.htmlQuote:
Compounding the problem — and the frustrations of NFL owners — has been the ascendancy of the NBA. Whereas the NFL felt like the sport that best fit the cultural spirit of the past decades of American life, it’s the NBA that reflects the future. All at once, the NBA has one of its greatest-ever teams (the Golden State Warriors), led by an inner-sanctum future Hall of Famer (Kevin Durant) and the league’s most beloved player (Stephen Curry); it has perhaps the best player since Michael Jordan (LeBron James), who also happens to be one of the most vital, globalist brand-called-me icons of our time; and it has a freewheeling, deeply pleasant style of play that is both an evolution of decades of on-court style and irresistible to watch. Perhaps more important, it has actively embraced the personalities, and the power, of its players, from the goofy man-child Twitter giddiness of 76ers star Joel Embiid to the Euro-charm of the Knicks’ own Kristaps Porzingis to an unprecedented spate of political activism culminating in the still-surreal spectacle of LeBron calling President Trump “U bum” on Twitter (which actually shut Trump up; he hasn’t talked about the NBA since). The NBA is vibrant and organic and alive; the NFL feels both toxic and bathed in amber. The league won’t even let the players take their helmets off to celebrate; how much could we possibly be expected to care about these people?
Is the NBA really doing
that well? This just screams Elite Media Bubble to me, this idea that everyone is as fascinated by the NBA as people who work or used to work at Deadspin are. I'm pretty sure there are huge swaths of this country that don't care about a league with a tedious bullshit regular season where only four or five out of thirty teams are relevant, and plenty of people who are outright hostile to it in their preference for the college game. But guys guys guys, large, child-brained black man Joel Embiid has funny broken English on Twitter, guys!! And I'm sure nothing is more vibrant and alive than 7,000 people sitting on their hands at a Suns/Pelicans/Kings/Timberwolves game. The NFL's problems shouldn't be taken lightly but let's not act as if the NBA is really nipping at their heels here.
I think the NBA is in the best spot it’s been in in a very long time. I don’t know about all that larger culture stuff, but the product is better than it’s been in 20 years. The “four or five” relevant teams part is just not true. Over half the league is relevant right now and there’s great games every single night. The Pelicans are the only one of those four small market teams that have shit crowds. I mean, I get that you’re annoyed when people say good things about the nba, but I think your response is more indicative of living in a bubble than leitch’s excerpt is.
I will say that anyone who thinks Steph Curry is one of the most beloved players in the league is very out of touch with the league. He’s easily one of the 3 or 4 most polarizing players in the league.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
