” … And Rambo too, he got a dope pair of Nikes on.
Godzilla pure motherfuckin’ filler
Keep your eyes off the real killer. …” -Rage Against the Machine, “No Shelter”

I’ve had it with the National Basketball Association.

The “Golden Era” of the NBA has long since past: The Run of the Bulls has winded down unspectacularly; the Lake Show has been canceled; even Celtic pride has gone bunk. But worst of all, the level of overall competitiveness and the level of intriguing, welcoming and exciting basketball has watered down to a shriveled, ghastly specter.

I have seen the hideousness of the league, and I’m sick of looking back at that featureless guise of the NBA.

I’ve had it with the NBA.

I’ve had it with endorsement deals for remarkably uninspiring individuals, with corporations consuming stadium boxes and lower bowl seats across NBA cities instead of working class fans. I’m sick of million-dollar babies snorting enough cocaine to fill a U-Haul with it. I’m sick of the players acting like prima donnas and management acting like bugaboos.

The fan of the league that shows up has deteriorated with the play and demeanor of its players. The fan is a tool in corporate sponsorship. As a byproduct of the NBA’s mass media onslaught toward sentimentality and desperation, the fans who love basketball for what it is have been snookered into league on its downward spiral.

The players do not play at the same level of intensity night in and night out. The typical NBA star settles into a rhythm, never breaking away from it, never taking the game to unimagined levels of greatness that Michael Jordan, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson, among others, all accomplished in their careers. Instead of rising, most of today’s stars fall into the grind of everyday passivity. Life is only a reverie to these men; they disregard the immortal players who laid the yellow brick road for them with their creativity and resilience.

The league is a wasteland now, from squabbling over TV rights to big name sponsors plundering East Asian countries for shoes to incoherent rule changes. The distraction is the attraction.

Rules don’t change the game – players change the game. The athlete is solely responsible for raising the competitive level of a sport. Though a shot clock definitely helped pick up the pace.

The NBA is just another capitalist casualty.