10 Reasons Why Basketball is the Best Sport to Play or Watch

In no particular order

1. It’s Indoors – The game is played in a controlled environment. 75.735° Fahrenheit… oh you like that temperature… me too. Playing basketball outside is a drag sometimes too. I could put up this beautiful three-ball on those crappy double rimmed hoops at the park that is only going to go in if I swoosh it, except a gust of wind comes up and sends it into the nearby baseball practice. I’m afraid of little kids with bats – for the record. Finishing up, no weather or temperature issues… It’s nice.
2. The Ball – The ball is a very comfortable size at 29.5″ for men and 28.5″ for women. It’s also a very nice puke brown color which is very appetizing I think. Also it’s not so irregular shaped that players are not kicking it all around the place trying to pick it up – you know you’ve seen this on the sport’s biggest follies.
3. The Shoes – The American population or at least the teenage American
   population have taken a liking to the basketball styled shoe. Very few sports can you go from leisure to action without changing shoes. Having said that – it gives basketball an advantage and why I call it the best sport to play or watch.
4. Athleticism – I am a firm believer that basketball requires the best athletes. Not only does a player have to be fast and strong and what not. They also have to be coordinated and the ability to jump many feet in the air is greatly admired. There are many other things that are necessary to be a great basketball player but it’s the combination of all those things that gives basketball an edge over all other sports.
5. The Light Show – If you were privy to attend a professional basketball game or sometimes you get a glimpse of it on TV but there’s the smoke and the lights and the everything awesome that you wouldn’t get at any other sports event.
6. Equipment – Basketball has a complete lack of equipment, which makes everything lovely from a player’s standpoint. Some sports have so much equipment that it limits player mobility. Not having pads or things of that sort made basketball the cheapest sport to play growing up.
7. Mascots – At least at the professional level the mascots are the most entertaining of the bunch. It’s just fun to watch some person dressed up as a bear or some random animal riding down the stadium staircase on a bike or jumping through a ring of fire… then having trouble putting it out an delaying that game for 30 minutes but that’s beside the point. It basically a circus that comes free with a ticket to the ball game.
8. Playoffs – Playoffs in every sport are very exciting I admit however basketball is the king. At the professional level there are series instead of individual games and the playoffs last for a couple months allowing viewers to catch plenty of basketball games. At the collegiate level March Madness is an entire month full of high intensity playoff games and games are nearly every day.
9. Courtside – Ok so most of this stuff is as the professional level but even below that the intimacy between the fans and the athletes is very high in basketball. Most people, however, can’t afford seats that are courtside but it is entertaining to see your most disliked celebrity get squashed by some of the games bigger athletes.
10. Scoring – The amount of scoring in a game dictates a lot of things such as pace and momentum. Basketball has very high scoring at very small intervals which can lead to so much chaos for both players and fans except I think that’s what makes it fun. Some sports the momentum shift is very slow and gradual and so momentum shifts only a few times in a game. Basketball could have dozens of shifts in the course of a game. A minutes worth of momentum could yield over ten points on some occasions. This gives the game that X factor, because you never know who’s going to win even down those final couple minutes.

Outrageous… yes, logical… sometime but you have to admit they all make sense. At least in my head they do. I guess that leads the question of whether I am sane or not. Meh who cares!