White basketball players becoming "better"
isn't dependent on how people feel. People choosing whether or not to tune out
is dependent on how people feel. That analogy doesn't work.
Basically this, Lavar and Lonzo Ball have been covered more in the past year than Lillard has his whole career. Lonzo Ball already has an insane amount of hype, and we don't even know if he's a good NBA player yet. But instead of any respect being given to anyone Blazers, the national media will talk about Ball to no end, and the NBA supports this.
The national media overhypes Triple Doubles. Triple Doubles are a collection of stats, that is arbitrary, because the difference between 9rebs/9ast and 10reb/10ast is the same as 10reb/10ast and 11reb/11ast. However, when a certain player (like Westbrook) gets that 10th rebound and 10th assist, "experts" talk about the triple double to no end. It turns a decent game into a great game. It doesn't matter if Westbrook shot 35%, chased every rebound and stole boards form his bigs, played bad defense and turned the ball over 7 times... The 10th rebound and assist is way more important than all of that.
There's 30 teams in the league, and many great stories that we probably don't hear about from other markets. That's because the NBA and national media is constantly marketing a certain group of "superstars" and big market/superteams to no end. You never hear any X's and O's broken down like with the NFL, or how a certain team fits with a certain player... Instead you get "
Can Lebron's super friends team up in 2018", "
Next NBA Superteam? Teams to Watch", "
Curry says he wasn't making fun of Lebron", "
MJ still ranks Kobe higher than Lebron", "
Which 2018 NBA FAs are most likely to leave?", and I didn't even include the daily Lavar Ball headline...
Basically, the NBA and the media promotes celebrities more than basketball. A couple super teams full of celebrities that the NBA has overpromoted in a big market is more important to the league than great, competitive basketball from teams across the nation. The casual fan soaks all these up, while someone like me, who loves the
game, is left disappointed. For someone like me, no collection of players will ever be bigger and more important than the sport, but the NBA promotes care more about superstars celebrity status than the purity and competitiveness of the sport. This is why Silver says shit like "Superteams are great for the league... We should celebrate excellence."
That's why I don't care for watching nationally televised games often, because the NBA is nationally televising the game usually for one or two players. I understand people want to see the best players, but the rate in which the Lakers will get televised this year because of Lonzo Ball will be annoying, because I'd rather see competitive basketball between great
teams (which I guess is pretty non-existent). It also wouldn't be as bad if the NBA didn't do shit like run commercials for a week that is hyping up a GSW vs. POR matchup by showing highlights of Curry and Durant with no mention of Portland. Makes me feel like the NBA doesn't give a shit up our team or city, and cares more about the star individual in such and such city.
In football, you'd say "Hey, you gonna catch the Eagles vs. Cardinals game later?", in baseball you'd say "You gonna catch the Yankees vs. Dodgers game later?"... In basketball, you'll hear "You gonna watch Westbrook vs. Lonzo?"
