NFL
By: Greg Rector
Half of the NBA regular season is in the books. So let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly halfway through this season.
The Good
Number one for me has to be the parity we are seeing throughout the association. No one can take even those teams considered to be the leaders in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes as an easy night. Competitive balance is something every major sports league desire because it keeps fans interested for much longer and that also means higher TV ratings and revenue. For this aspect, the NBA is living the dream. Even better are the teams making moves upward like Sacramento and Cleveland (Without LeBron). Can they challenge the usual suspects and avoid the same old finalist’s fatigue? Next up has to be the scoring being higher than it has been in over 50 years with teams averaging 113 points a game. Offense sells and we are getting plenty of it. On a nightly basis, there’s someone putting up 40 and 50 points routinely and of course, Donovan Mitchell had his 71-point game. From the fan’s viewpoint, that’s what they love seeing. The mastery displayed nightly by Nikola Jokic in Denver and Luka Doncic in all phases of the offensive game (scoring, assists, and rebounding) is something every purist of the sport has to be enjoying. Then of course the guys who excel at simply racking up big numbers. Anyone who can’t get excited over seeing a Ja Morant or Donovan Mitchell scoring spree is missing out as far as I’m concerned. When Giannis Antetokounmpo takes over a game it’s simply magical. The rookies are doing all right for the most part as we see Paolo Banchero, Bennedict Mathurin, and others having very positive impacts on their teams. Mathurin might not get as much attention but seeing what he is doing as a rookie sixth man is truly impressive. A resurgent Brooklyn Nets, after the drama of a coaching change and off-court issues with Kyrie Irving, ensure there’s at least one great story in media central New York, something we can never count on the Knicks for. As much as we see great individual play we’re also seeing plenty of the league’s top duos play tremendously well also. Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown especially have so many nights that both are playing high-level basketball.
The Bad
Number one has to be the injury toll we are seeing this season. I’m not talking about the “load management” aspect also being a problem, but the real injuries some of the biggest names in the game have had or currently are dealing with. The impact of one injury in the NBA is greater than with most other sports with smaller rosters. Losing Steph Curry, Anthony Davis, Kris Middleton, and others have impacted the season greatly. Injuries have always been a part of the sport but the sheer volume is scary in 2022/23. Can we also figure out that traveling is more than the jab step move with the pivot foot and actual steps? Some guys could get frequent flier points. Or how about the out-of-bounds calls with guys especially in the corner trying to take threes? The sideline hasn’t moved and I’m not aware of the player’s feet being much larger than before. I understand the fact that points are what people want to see but there are also other fundamentals like rebounding, could we please see more boxing out? Seems to be a lost part of the game right now. I understand that the rules are definitely to the advantage of the offense but sound fundamentals still need to be used. Then of course we have the teams underperforming from their expected results. Minnesota in the west and Atlanta in the east are both not where many thought they would be as are some others. The positionless player experiment in Toronto seems to be failing, that might be due to the injuries and lack of continuity, but it could also be the league has figured the Raptors out.
The Ugly
Seeing teammates fight with one another during a game, shouting matches that use to remain in the locker room and the nature of personal attacks in the media and on social media are bad looks. I get a competitive nature and frustrations boiling over at times, that happens but those personal “beefs” will get out of hand sooner or later. We don’t need to ever repeat the “Malice at the Palace” and someone is going to take the verbal jousting to the next level. The real UGLY, for me, is the lack of progress between the player’s association and the league in collective bargaining talks. The two sides pushed back the deadline to February 8th and with so many issues with the salary cap and other player’s concerns along with the fans increasing frustrations with seeing players being “load managed” the possible in-season tournament and a few other topics, labor strife may derail the league entirely and that would be horrible for basketball fans. My last ugly is the fact that despite years of this being a so-called “norm” or some sort of a right of passage, the officials need to absolutely STOP calling games differently for rookies. It’s not their job to initiate these players into the league and they need to treat players equally.
Let’s hope we see the GOOD a lot more than the BAD or the UGLY in the second half of the season and we can all enjoy the playoff races that should go down to the NBA wire.
