You’ll often hear people say things like, “Nah, I don’t watch the NBA; it’s boring,” or “college basketball is real basketball; it’s basketball in its purest form,” or “the NBA is just a bunch of big guys with no skill, a bunch of thugs, at least in college they can shoot,” and on and on in some variation. These comments, unfortunately, aren’t uttered by basketball derelicts but rather are made and perpetuated by true fans far and wide. There seems to be a general consensus that college basketball is more exciting, more entertaining, and simply a higher quality product than the NBA. Now, there is no doubt a majority of you that are already jumping up and down screaming, “but college basketball is better! Pre-Season tournaments! Conference rivals! March Madness!” Look, I hear ya, and I don’t disagree with you either; college basketball is great; March Madness is awesome, and I’m a huge fan of it across the board. Therefore, I’m not here to bash college basketball at all (so you can wipe that indignant look off of your face); I’m not here to question the excitement or entertainment value of college basketball; heck, I’m not even here to question the quality of college basketball. I’m simply here to stand proudly behind the quality of the NBA. Why? Because, there are simply too many basketball fans missing out on the greatness of the NBA playoffs right now because they fool heartedly believe that it’s not worth following. Allow me to dispel some of that thinking.

As a basketball fan, in order to develop (or reclaim perhaps) a love for the NBA, the first order of business is to have an open mind. As to the exact origins of where this thought process that college basketball has a higher quality of play than the NBA stems from, I don’t know, but I do know that while it may have had legitimate merit at one time, it doesn’t today. Most fans just blindly buy in, and among peers you are even viewed as a basketball purist or at the least a discerning fan if you hold to this belief. Therefore, as we move on, I’m not going to try to pinpoint and rehash the exact beginning of these ideals, but I will delve into some of the reasons why they continue to this day. Hopefully, I can do so in a concise yet thorough manner. Yet even if I can produce (while sitting at my desk at work writing for a few short moments) the definitive literary masterpiece on this matter (don’t hold your breath), if you don’t read it with an open mind, you will remain unconvinced. Your mind is like an umbrella; it only works when it’s open (you like that, I knew you would).

As mentioned above, most fans believe that the NBA is a lower quality product than college basketball with no rhyme or reasons to substantiate their claims. Here are a few reasons to unsubstantiate them:

#1. It is widely held that college basketball players are better shooters than their NBA counterparts. This is simply untrue. I think that this line of thinking may come from the fact that often times great outside shooters in college, who are also great scorers, flounder in the NBA…if they even make it to the league. JJ Redick is a great example (and there are many more like him: Randolph Childress, Sean Respert, etc., etc.). The thing to understand, though, is not that there isn’t room in the NBA for great shooters; it’s that nine times out of ten these great college shooters don’t have the athleticism to get open for their shot, and more importantly they are usually defensive liabilities. JJ Redick is a great shooter, no doubt, but can you imagine him trying to check D. Wade for 40 minutes a night? He would get absolutely torched. (I’ll touch more on this in a minute). By and large, NBA players are unbelievable shooters (granted not everyone, Ben Wallace is atrocious from the outside, but you could make that case for a myriad of collegiate players too). Take a guy like Gilbert Arenas; he is not known as strictly a shooter (more of an all around scorer), but he hit 73 out of 100 three pointers using only one hand in a shooting contest with a teammate earlier this year. Jason Kapono shot over 50% from 3-point land this year; the Phoenix suns shot over 40% as a team in three’s this year! The bottom line is that if you give an NBA shooter a wide-open look; they will knock it down like clockwork. A good example is this: in college baseball, a good hitter will bat .300+; in MLB, 300+ is also a good average. The difference is the pitching. If you give A-Rod or Bonds a good pitch to hit, they will knock it out of the park…almost every time. The reason their average isn’t higher than the college baseball player is nothing more than they just don’t get as many good pitches to hit. In the NBA, if a shooter gets a wide open look it’s money in the bank; they just don’t get as many good looks because of better defense. This brings me to my next point.

#2. NBA players are far superior defenders than almost all college players. Take Adam Morrison; he was the NCAA Division I player of the year in 2006. He struggled this year in the NBA, and his problem was getting his shot off. I remember a game against New Jersey where Adam had a good first half, and they decided to put Jason Kidd (who is 34 years old, by the way) on him in the second half. He never scored again. Also, in the NBA, you can’t hide weak defenders because everyone can score, and you can’t run simplistic offensive sets because the players are bigger, faster, and stronger. Of all the ex-collegiate players that get cut from the NBA each year, many of them simply couldn’t properly D-up. You see, the NBA is all about matchups, and if you are a weak defender you will be identified and exploited immediately. This is why there are so many pick and rolls in the NBA. This brings me to my next point.

#3. People often complain about the frequency of pick and rolls used in the NBA; it’s boring, they say. Let me shed some light on the issue. In the NBA, you can’t just thrown the ball around willy-nilly and expect to get open; players recover too fast for that. Here’s an example (using the Pistons…naturally) of why the NBA screen and roll is the simplest, best way to score: In the Chicago series, let’s say Kirk Heinrich is guarding Chauncy Billups and PJ Brown is guarding Rasheed Wallace. Billups has the ball and Sheed sets a high ball screen on Heinrich. If the Bulls switch the screen, now Heinrich is guarding the bigger Wallace and Brown is guarding the quicker Billups; both are mismatches, either Wallace can post up Heinrich or Billups can penetrate on Brown forcing other defenders to help and leaving someone else open for a shot. If the Bulls don’t switch the screen, Heinrich has two choices; he can go under the Wallace screen or he can fight over it. If he goes under it, Billups is open for the outside shot; if he fights over it, Brown must hedge to stop Billups from penetrating. When Brown helps, Wallace is open for an outside shot. Now, obviously it’s not that easy every time (and this isn’t the only way to score in the league), but in the NBA in order to score consistently you have to create mismatches. The best way to create those mismatches is by using the pick and roll, a play that demands as much mentally from the players as it does physically. And so…

#4. Players in the NBA have higher basketball IQ’s than players in college do. I know this may seem unseemly (“seem unseemly…nice, huh?), but trust me…it’s true. Why? Well, in college success hinges more on the ability to execute your given assignment than it does to read the play and respond accordingly (not that you are a robot or anything). If you run the preset play to perfection, you score; if you stay in your designated area or take care of your man and some help side on defense, you get stops. Period. Granted, success in the NBA also is very dependent on simply execution; however, the difference is, in the NBA execution is a more complex issue. Execution means properly reading a screen and roll (on both offense and defense); execution means identifying match up problems and exploiting them, etc., etc. Execution in the NBA requires being able to read the play, your man, and the situation and respond correctly in a split second. This is why the NBA rookie is often a step slow…that and sheer athleticism of the NBA athlete. Moving right along.

#5. NBA players are the fastest, biggest, strongest, most athletically gifted basketball players in the world. There are some very skilled college players than don’t have a chance in the NBA because they simply aren’t quick enough, or big enough, or both. Tyler Handsborough is a great college player, but can you imagine him trying to score consitently on Kevin Garnett in the post? I was reading an article the Detroit Free Press about the Pistons recently, and they were doing some reminiscing about how Dumars put together the current Piston nucleus. The topic of the Darko Milicic debacle came up, and they quoted this old 90-year-old guy that works at the Palace. As the Pistons were thinking about drafting Darko, and the press was fawning over this European sensation, he said, “yeah that’s great, but we’ll see if he can play with black kids.” Ha, that’s funny, but you know what; Darko couldn’t, at least not to the degree everyone though he could. This leads me into an important point about the NBA that’s warrants mentioning.

#6. NBA players, much more than college players (and all other sports), are considered by basketball fans and the general public alike as thugs. Why? The number one factor here is that the NBA is basically marketing a 90% black league to a 90% white audience. This is why David Stern has rules like suspending players for even thinking about running on the court during an altercation, and this is why there was a dress code implemented. Now, I want to make it clear that I don’t think there is any racism involved with any of this. I’m not trying to stoop to the level of some who whips out the race card to explain or justify anything they want. It’s just that perception is reality, and this is the reality of the NBA. Now, the reality is that there was probably more crime committed on the Cincinnati Bengal’s team last year than in the whole NBA (not that the NBA is squeaky clean by any means), but given the individual publicity of NBA players, they’re screw ups are more widely debated. Does anyone care if there is a full field baseball brawl or if Roger Clemmons comes to the game wearing shorts and a t-shirt? Not really. (I’d give a pertinent NHL example here too, but they’ve so demoralized their fan base over the past ten years that most people don’t even know they still exist…the Columbus Bluejackets, Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers…who? Yeah, those look to be some heated rivalries). Speaking of rivals.

#7. It is widely held that college rivalries are the best in the business. Duke – Carolina…need I say more (though Ohio State – Michigan football is the best rivalry in all sports…period…no, period I said! I said period, Yankees – Red Sox fans…sheesh!). I’m not here to debate the strength of those rivalries; they are special, but I do want to make a quick point. College basketball rivalries are based in tradition not in the current cast of players for either team. While that tradition obviously boosts both the longevity and depth of the animosity, it lacks one element that the NBA brings to the table. In college, especially in this day in age, you’ll only have teams playing together for one to two years (three and four if you’re lucky) while in the NBA you have player combinations that can spend five to ten years playing side by side. That is why the Pistons – Bulls rivalry from the late 80′s early 90′s was so good. It wasn’t that Detroit and Chicago had deep seeded hatred for one another just because, but when Joe D. and Isaiah knew they were going to meet Scottie and Michael year after year in the postseason, the rivalry blossomed. You see, when Duke – Carolina meet each other this year, it will be special…just because it’s Duke – Carolina, but when Detroit and Cleveland meet each other in the Eastern Conference Finals tonight it will be a chess match because they know each other so well. Example: The Jews and the Arabs hate each other with a passion…they just do; they probably don’t even know why, but they do; that’s how they are raised. This is Duke and Carolina fans. Detroit and Cleveland are starting to hate one another because of recent occurrences…because of last year’s playoff battle and the ensuing one this year. Here in America, we don’t hate the Japanese…but we did the day after they bombed Pearl Harbor. Get the picture. Now, to more on the chess match.

#8. As great as the NCAA tournament is (and it is great), as a basketball fan how could you not love the seven game series of the NBA playoffs? When you play the same team, the same players, the same tendencies for four to seven games in a row, it becomes a chess match, a game of adjustments. Not only that, but as individual matchups take center stage, so do the emotions involved. Sure, a potential of 28 playoff games is a lot of games to play in one postseason, but testing the players physical endurance level and mental toughness only makes victory that much sweeter. Speaking of a lot of games…

#9. There is a common perception among basketball fans that NBA players basically coast for 82 meaningless regular season games and wait for the postseason to start playing hard. Let me address this: first off, in all sports the intensity naturally picks up in the playoffs. Football, basketball, soccer, hockey, every sport and in all levels. Intensity naturally picks up when there is more at stake. Secondly, fans subconsciously place (and not altogether incorrectly) importance on a regular season game in direct proportion with how many games there are. Take the NFL, for instance. Every Sunday is pivotal, as a three game losing streak can ruin your season. MLB is on the other end of the spectrum, with 162 games, you can lose your best player to injury for 50 games and still have him in tact for two-thirds of the season. The NBA, at 82 games before postseason, plays more than twice as many games as they play at the college level. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t play hard for those 82 games; if anything, that type of grueling schedule is a testimony to how phenomenal these athletes are, because they truly are…

#10. the greatest basketball players in the world! Seriously, why wouldn’t you want to watch the best? Did you get as excited about the JV game in high school as you did the varsity game? Why didn’t the XFL work? Because it was like a JV NFL. Why don’t more people like the WNBA? Is it a sexist thing? No, it’s just a lower quality of play. Well, I hate to break it to you, but as great as college basketball is, it is a lower quality of play than the NBA. The 2007 Memphis Grizzlies would absolutely wipe the floor with the two time national champion Florida Gators….no question about it.

How can the best players, in every category, create nothing less than higher quality basketball than those who aspire to be like them? I don’t know, but here’s the thing: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For you, the NBA might always be lower quality basketball compared to the college game (and that’s fine, you can be wrong…as long as it’s an informed wrong decision), but hopefully, if you do see the light, when you’re standing around the coffee pot at work and one of your co-workers makes it clear that although he loves basketball, he is too good to watch the NBA, you can bust out this blog (assuming you will have printed it off, laminated it, and made sure it is always on your person) and hand it to him. Just make sure you take a picture of him for me when he chokes on his ignorant words.