An Absurd 'Sport'

[brainiac]

If ever there were proof of how ridiculous a 'sport' basketball is, here is one:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/basketball/68461328

40,000 points!

The hoop is 10ft high but most of the players are getting on for 7ft tall.  Result?  One team goes up one end, puts the ball through the hoop, then the other team goes down the other end, puts the ball through the hoop.  Say, what's the score? 

96 - 96

Almost as boring as Formula 1

[douglas9401]

I'm guessing you've never been to a game.

[brainiac]

You're guessing correctly - my sock drawer is always in need of attention

[andy-hughes]

I think it's all too easy to dismiss any sport by ridiculing its set-up - twenty-two men chasing a bag of wind ... and so on.

But for the people who enjoy it, there are subtleties and excitement that the casually dismissive viewer neither sees or appreciates.

Basketball has evolved to the point where players are so tall that there is less 'shooting' than 'placing' of the ball.

Formula One has evolved to a point where the better car and the better driver win, rather than the old ways when it was entirely driving skill that determined the output.

But the popularity of both indicates that those evolutions have done nothing to blunt the enthusiasm of the people who enjoy the sports they watch, and there are still enough of them to make the sports viable and entertaining for millions of people.

[JJ109]

I tend to agree - how many times are the matches settled just before the buzzer goes. Why not just play 10 seconds per game and have done with it - or first team to score wins!

[brainiac]

Football may well be 'twenty-two men chasing a bag of wind', but at least it's relatively difficult to score!

[barry1010]

The average pro basketball player is 2"taller than 70 years ago.  I expected the difference to be greater.

The only basketball I've ever watched is the Harlem Globetrotters cartoon series.

Isn't baseball just rounders with helmets and shin pads?

[douglas9401]

Or so they would have us believe.

[brainiac]

//Isn't baseball just rounders with helmets and shin pads?//

 

Yes, of course you could say that, but, again, it's difficult to hit the ball, difficult to score