Bad Blood

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Bad Blood

Written by Mark Grey

John Starks (left) Reggie Miller (right)

by MARK GREY

3.24.10

For as long as I have been alive, I have been a die hard NBA fan. I grew up watching NBA triple headers on Sunday, and have been hooked ever since. While my love of the sport still burns strong, for the better part of the last decade, it has felt like something is missing. I could never really put my finger on it, but I knew this was not the NBA I grew up watching. After years pondering the missing link of my basketball love life, the answer came to me in the form of an ESPN documentary. The missing element in today’s NBA is bad blood.

When I first heard that the latest ESPN 30 for 30 documentary was going to be the tale of Reggie Miller and the Knicks, I thought, who doesn’t know the story of that magical night at the Garden? There isn’t a basketball fan alive who doesn’t know Reggie scored 8 points in less than 9 seconds. Based on the great work of the previous 30 for 30 documentaries, I tuned in and was pleasantly surprised. There it was right in front me, the reason I fell in love with basketball and sports as a whole - the passion and desire to prove you are better than the man standing in front of you. It was a reminder of what the NBA once was, teams full of hate, fans full of love, and players filled with the desire to show they were the better man.

Pacers vs. Knicks didn’t just mean two basketball teams playing for the right to advance, it was deeper than that. Their series was rooted in history, bad blood, and hate. I know we were all taught that hate is a bad thing, but when it comes to a good sports rivalry, controlled hate is just what the doctor ordered. The players who put on those Knicks and Pacers jerseys weren’t just playing for a paycheck, they were playing for much more. The Pacers big men wanted to prove they weren’t intimidated by the Knicks big men. Dale and Antonio Davis wanted to prove they were just as tough as Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason. Mark Jackson wanted to prove that his hometown team made a mistake by getting rid of him. John Starks, the undrafted former CBA player wanted to prove he was every bit as good a scorer as Miller. The fans of New York saw the people of Indiana as hicks, and Pacers fans wanted nothing more than there basketball team to show the “Big Apple” a little “ Hoosier Pride.” Mix all these emotions and bad blood together, throw in a celebrity courtside heckler, and the result is ‘can’t-miss’ television.

The same bad blooded rivalries that had viewers glued to their couch every weekend are missing in today’s NBA. Long gone are the days where the NBA’s best players got booed in every arena throughout the country. In today’s NBA, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant hear chants of MVP when they shoot free throws on the road. With NBA players having more and more chips in their pockets, the ones they use to play with on their shoulders have all but disappeared. The games superstars wanted to embarrass each other every time they played, and talk about it freely after the game was over. Today’s superstars recruit each other and joke with each other while the game is going on. Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan were friends off the court but when that ball was tipped they were trying to punish each other and their entire team.

While the word hate does bring about a lot of bad traits, one that comes along with it is passion. With strong rivalries you get players paying with much more passion, and the players just seem to care more. When a player like Miller lost a game to the Knicks you hear stories about how they felt sick to there stomach and didn’t talk to anyone for days. With today’s players you can watch your favorite player miss the game winning shot at 9pm and be partying with him at the club before midnight. The lack of passion hasn’t just stopped at the players, it has spread to the fans as well. There is no kid right now growing up in Toronto who can’t stand Dwight Howard, nor is there any father in Orlando teaching his son to boo Chris Bosh. With teams being completely turned over every couple of years, fans don’t know who to love or who to hate. They don’t want to boo LeBron or Dwayne Wade in fear that they might be their teams next savior. The fact that the Pacers and Knicks hated each other drew the entire nation to watch. When you eliminate hate and that passion, you get fans asking why would I stay up on Thursday night to watch the Trailblazers take on the Thunder ?

Do I still love the NBA? Of course, but what is missing is those bad blood rivalries. When the players have that extra incentive to play, we as fans have the extra incentive to watch. We are missing those old Bulls/Pistons and Pacers/Knicks match ups or even more recently Lakers/Kings. When someone like Shaq calls the other team a bunch of queens, it makes you want to watch just a little bit more to see how they respond. There is no telling where the next great rivalry will come from, I just hope it comes soon.