[VJ_MAVRICK]

This thread had been lying dormant for a very long time now and so as usual I decided to shake it up from its slumber as the 2010 Season is catching up again with some pretty good gaming action in store in the coming months.

It is happy to notice that Basketball is being promoted big time in India through various programmes and the very website of NBA.COM - Where amazing happens. has NBA India link India .

The gaming schedules are also given along with the TV Channels (ESPN and STAR Sports) which have tied up in getting this game to the last mile here in India. I am sure many folks like me whose interest and taste for this game never dies but might be dormant for sometime had been instrumental along with the NBA and the Basketball Federation of India to help promote this sport.

[musicvj]

ESPN India has very few Celtics game :(

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Well! Definitely the overall games coverage is shared between ESPN and STAR and definitely I personally felt each team has around 6 to 8 games covered on the whole in the regular season until the play offs.

There is this All star game coming up on Feb12 to 14 and even that is missing on our TV listings.

[musicvj]

Star Sports showed the all stars today morning.

[musicvj]

Celtics vs Lakers game is live on Star Sports now. Go GREEN

[esteemer]

Oh when's the season starting? Or has it already started?

Am too lazy to check the site out. :P

[VJ_MAVRICK]

The current 2009- 2010 season is on and of the 82 games to be played in the regular season almost every team has played around 52 to 56 games.

Once the playoff's start then it will be worth watching and it should anyway start by end of march or april 1st week

[esteemer]

Oh end of March is great timing. Exams will be over by then

Well NBA is Ok, but how many of us T-Bhpians really play basketball? I mean - Why no dicussion over the game? Like tactics, moves etc.

Is there such a thread? I'll search, and if I can't find one, I'll be creating one.

[VJ_MAVRICK]

esteemer! there is no such thread and there are a very few folks who are interested in the game unlike cricket and f-1.

Personally I am a follower and not a player though ,as the adrenalin rush in the moves, dunks, time outs, moves in the paint and skills of phenomenal players keep me glued to the game.

[dark.knight]

Cricket is our national sport, well you know what I mean (Hockey? what's that). However I always found it somewhat boring (personally), I do understand how good it is as I've been glued to certain international Test matches, some one day series and of course T20 has made it so much more exciting but somehow I couldn't connect to it personally even though I was a decent pacer during the few times I played it in the ground. Football too, I never connected to it personally.. watching EPL always aggravated me whenever there was a missed shot or a goalless game.

I decided to find out exactly how many BHPians like watching basketball, i.e the world's best league the NBA. I have been following it for much of my teenage life (early mornings at 6 am before college used to start). I haven't watched much the past few years as life has become rather hectic but I did watch a few games this season mostly because my idol Kobe Bryant had his last year as an active player. I've always supported L.A Lakers, watched Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe win 3 rings consecutively and then 2 more as Kobe did it leading the team himself.

There is something about the game that is so poetic, the movements, the jumpers, hooks, faders (types of shot) and the strategies that the players make that just gets my adrenaline going. I've seen a hundred matches where the game is down to the wire with maybe 3 seconds remaining and yet a team wins with a last second 3-pointer or dunk. I feel lucky to have watched Kobe play in his prime, he was the closest there is and will ever be to Jordan. Just a few snippets :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ambRVz1rqiE

Any fans out there? I'm trying to watch as many playoff games this season, seems tight.

[deathwalkr]

My days of NBA began with Jordan and ended with Jordan.

Talk about a game which just requires a second to decide winner/loser. Good times Bulls ftw always \m/

[avi550m]

Finally! A thread about my favourite sport.

I played Basketball in college but did not really get or understand anything about it. All I knew was Michael Jordan... who didn't?

Of course, that all changed with NBA 2k14. Basketball quickly became my favourite sport, with scoring happening throughout the game, unlike Football, where you wait for what seems like yearssss for a goal (no disrespect to football fans).

My favourite player of course, is Allen Iverson. I still get chills when he came back in 2010 to the Philadelphia 76ers (with the announcers words... 'A six foot guard from Georgetown, Allllleeennn Iverssssonn'.

I love comeback story's in any sport, the underdog story, which is part of the reason I loved Iverson single-handedly carrying the 76ers to the 2001 finals, where they gave the invincible Kobe-Shaq Lakers a bloody nose in Game 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsgsNbTUiQ0

Regarding a team, one I love watching is the San Antonio Spurs. In a sport where hero ball so often draws eyeballs, the Spurs team-ball passing is a thing of beauty. And of course, I love how they conduct themelves, exemplified by Tim Duncan, who does not trash talk, bark or get irritated. His cricketing counterpart would be Rahul Dravid.

I can also not forget about Linsanity in 2012. Another great underdog story, an undrafted Point Guard taking over and guiding the losing New York Knicks to victory. The atmosphere in MSG... I wish I was there when it happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mr3P2JMcd8

I got to rewatch the old 90s finals, and I find myself rooting for anyone, ANYONE against MJ's bulls. Yes, I know MJ is the GOAT, but, like Steve Jobs, he is the biggest A-Hole in his field. So naturally, I loved when the Barkley Suns or the Utah Jazz gave the bulls a bloody nose. Which brings me to my earliest basketball memory, the 97 Finals Game Game 4 in Utah, when John Stockton threw the greatest pass in a Finals series I have seen, a full court touchdown pass to Karl Malone. Still gives me goosebumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8591nmgoGqU

Which brings me to this very interesting post I found on Facebook. Which team would you pick?

[Mukund]

Bumping up a very old thread. Any NBA fans still out here? I'm a big fan, following the league on a day to day basis.

[Mukund]

Hi guys,
Nba fan signing in. Anyone still follow the sport? I do, on a day to day basis.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Mukund

Hi guys,
Nba fan signing in. Anyone still follow the sport? I do, on a day to day basis.

Not very much, can't get much time to watch television itself leave alone at 5 am in the morning. Secondly even if I do get the time I think NBA has changed a lot, for the worse since the past 3-4 years, the decline started around the time Adam Silverstein took over from David Stern. The other reasons for the decline (for me) are retirements of undoubtedly the greatest coach of all time - Phil Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal, the greatest center of post-Bulls era, and Kobe Bryant, to me the greatest player of all time (I'd say there is a three-way lock for greatest - Kareem Jabbar, Jordan and Kobe).

If you've noticed today, all the points come from about a 90 degree arc from the post.. earlier in the triangle offense era there was a 180 degree offensive attack. Today Steph Curry with his so predictable way downtown three-pointers, LeBron with full support of the referees always attacking the paint and getting the foul called even if defense touches him with a finger (its obvious that he is the pillar of ticket sales today) has killed the game, they may as well call it LBJBA. The Jordan era was very very rough, the Kobe era was just as challenging if not more with the double-team defense growing in popularity.

I've been a Laker fan since I was a kid when ESPN first broadcasted it in India (2000 if I remember), the Shaq-Kobe-Horry-Fisher combo was the deadliest in that era, it was hugely entertaining to see Shaq just muscle his way against equally tall centers, taking double-team, triple-team defense and just mowing them down like they were nothing. If he and Kobe had stuck together they'd have gotten another 2 rings to say the least.

Though Tim Duncan had more of an old-school, boring style, there is no doubt that he was the last of the greatest pre-LeBron era players to retire. Not planning to watch NBA again, but re-runs of the oldies, for sure.