Scoreboards

In a basketball scoreboards feature, we look at the great sport of basketball from the eyes of an English soccer fan. As a big fan of sport, one of the first things I wanted to do when I arrived in North America from the UK for the first time was watch some live sports. My friend offered to take me to see the Toronto Raptors play against the Dallas Maveriks (is that what they are called)?, the basketball scoreboards showing that the big stars at the time were the big German guy for Dallas and the guy who has since moved to Miami for Toronto. As you can see, I'm ashamed to say that my basketball knowledge was, and still is, very limited!

We arrived at the game a little early, and the first thing that struck me was the make up of the audience. The sport that I watch at home - soccer, attracts quite a different clientel. Here, there were more families, more women and generally a more diverse bunch of people. Immediately I could sense how different the vibe was. In soccer, the fans tend to be more focused on the match ahead, goading the rival supporters with their songs, and building up to a vocal cresendo before the players enter the pitch. Before the basketball game things were much more relaxed, talk was casual, there didn't seem to be any away fans to goad, and a show of some kind was being conducted on the floor.

The game itself was enjoyable, although there was a lack of tension as Dallas pulled away by 15 points in the first quarter and it stayed pretty much that way until the end. Certainly it is a very different experience to watching soccer. Whilst you have the considerable advantage of frequent scores, this is disadvantage too. When a goal is scored in soccer, with there being so few of them, I am sure that it is the best moment in sport. Basketball gives you very frequent small jabs of joy, whilst soccer gives you very infrequent immense waves of joy. Overall this makes soccer much more intense to watch (although I'm sure that a last minute tied game scenario would be quite different!).

The hyper-commercialization of the game was very evident. There was even a sponsor for the three-point shot! There was so much razzmataz and general showy fevour during stoppages that sometimes it felt like
the game was a mere sideshow, a vehicle in which to advertise to consumers. Saying that, English soccer has now become extremely commercialized too, and this is putting many old-school fans off the game.

Basketball is clearly a very aesthetic sport, which is very easy to watch and which produces great highlight reels. I can understand why it is so popular around the world. It was highly enjoyable to watch the game in Toronto, and it was not plagued by the swearing and bad vibes I encounter so often at soccer matches. I'm going to stick with my soccer though, it is also very asthetic, and nothing beats your favourite team scoring a goal! If I was born in North America I'm sure I would have a different opinion though!