How much NBA basketball do WNBA fans follow? If you don't really follow the NBA, why?

by thewiz06 on Aug 10, 2011 3:49 PM EDT

This post loosely continues on pilight's FanPost on why men watch sports, at least in the fact that I'm asking an open ended question.

So, the WNBA gets negative stereotypes and jokes about the play of the league and its players. Sure, much of this vitriol comes from the general public including those who don't even watch, but I would have to say that most of the negative comments on the WNBA are said by NBA fans. Here is a picture of Washington Wizards forward Trevor Booker who attended a game between the Washington Mystics and the Indiana Fever, and here is another picture of Washington Wizards ~~cheerleader~~ , I mean franchise star John Wall and many of the comments aren't positive about the Mystics when such a comment is made.

Whenever an NBA player comes to a WNBA game, often times to support a friend (Wall is friends with rookie forward Victoria Dunlap since she's also from Kentucky), if that player is called out by the PA Announcer, I see that the fans usually give a lukewarm response. Some guys like me will stand up and cheer because he's there, but most of the fans will look at me like I'm an idiot. However, if a women's basketball legend of some sort is there, such as let's say, former Mystics player Vicky Bullett or former UMD basketball head coach Chris Weller, they're given hero's welcomes like whenever Capitals Czar Alex Ovechkin catches a Wizards game. One time or another I had to think a second or two before I realized who it was.

I know a number of people at Mystics games who love NBA basketball, if not the Washington Wizards at least, but there are also plenty of fans who I know who don't care for the league, not too far off from the way NBA fans don't care about the WNBA. I can think of two big reasons why:

1. NBA basketball appears to glorify highlight plays over good basketball, and WNBA fans want to see good basketball over "highlights."

Well, every league has highlight plays, and those plays can become iconic, like Mike's legal crab dribble and dunk over Patrick Ewing, Dr. J's crazy layup in the Finals against the Lakers, and for Wizards fans, Gilbert Arenas' buzzer beating threes. Basketball is a sport that can showcase the talents of some great athletes, and the casual fan at least wants to see those great athletes utilize those talents.

The WNBA has its own share of highlights besides the Sparks dunks, such as Weatherspoon's full court buzzer beater in the Finals, and Sue Bird's game winners in back to back playoff games last year among others. One thing a number of Mystics fans have told me is that WNBA basketball is "more fundamental", or played the way basketball is supposed to be played, and that the NBA isn't doing that as much. I can certainly tell you that NBA fans don't just want to see highlights and players going for those type of plays.

2. "Returning the Favor" to NBA fans who don't like the WNBA.

What this means is that WNBA fans strike back at the NBA and often throw back stereotypes as well. These include some fans maybe saying that NBA players are too ghetto, too macho, and too narcissistic which are all things that the NBA faces. Also, as I mentioned above, WNBA fans not cheering for an NBA player who’s in attendance is also a way for them to strike back at the NBA fans, in particular for the notable stars in the city, like John Wall. Not cheering Booker or Hamady N'Diaye is understandable since they're bench guys. After all, if a WNBA player was at an NBA game and got called out by the PA Announcer, she will probably get a lukewarm response as well even if it was Diana Taurasi at Suns game or Cappie Pondexter at a Knicks game.

I personally don't like to see that whenever a star NBA player comes to a game and is recognized, in particular if the city has a team in both leagues. Whenever a celebrity is recognized, there are usually cheers, and in the WNBA, it could definitely use as much attendance support as it can get, and I'm sure almost all the DC area sports fans know who John Wall is. Sorry for the homer-ism.

*****

So that's what's on my chest. How do you compare your love for the WNBA against the NBA. And if you don't like the NBA, well, why?

Poll

How much NBA Basketball do you all follow?

I love the NBA, and follow it as much or even more than the WNBA

8 votes

I like NBA basketball a lot, but I like the WNBA or college basketball more

6 votes

I watch some NBA games and follow some players, but not avidly

10 votes

NBA..... isn't it missing a W? W for.... WINNING?!

6 votes

30 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 13 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

My NBA watching is mostly confined

to the playoffs.

by ttdomi on Aug 10, 2011 4:02 PM EDT reply actions

I'd like to answer with one of pilight's poll answers...

“Basketball is basketball”

Of course, I do live in a place where the Great and Talented Oz Kevin Durant graces us with his presence, but even still. I love them both for different reasons. Also love men’s and women’s college as well…

As for cheering when NBA guys are in attendance at W games, the Shock crowd was crazy excited for KD coming to a game, and will even cheer for the 66ers who happen to attend as well. But – it’s easy to like winners, right ;) #ThunderUp

by Jessica Lantz on Aug 10, 2011 4:11 PM EDT reply actions

I really like Durant

I think if Durant played for my team I could get much more excited about the NBA. As it is, OKC is holding that “other favorite team” spot for me right now.

I’m a Laker fan, but it’s weird being a Laker fan in NorCal. Also, please don’t talk to me about the Lakers in the playoffs this past season…I can’t even…just don’t.

Dear Magic Johnson,

I miss you.

<3, Shannon

by Shannon Cotterell on Aug 10, 2011 7:28 PM EDT up reply actions

OH NO!

A Fakers fan?? Shannon! I thought I liked you!! #BeatLA

by Jessica Lantz on Aug 12, 2011 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions

and you're in Sacramento?

by thewiz06 on Aug 12, 2011 11:54 AM EDT up reply actions

I mean the Bay.

my memory is so short

by thewiz06 on Aug 12, 2011 11:54 AM EDT up reply actions

I grew up in the Los Angeles area!

Spent the first 28 years of my life there. (Long Beach Stingrays, remember? YOLANDA GRIFFTH!) I’ve only been up here a few years by comparison. All the sports teams I grew up cheering for, I still cheer for. I grew up with Magic & Kareem! SHOWTIME! My Lakers fandom comes from that place.

You don’t give up your teams just because you move away. Eventually you might learn to like your new town’s teams as well, but…there’s something about that connection you have as a kid and that team having your sports heroes that never goes away.

Even when your team is full of whiny jackasses now. :/ And reality TV “stars” and…whatever. Lame.

It’d be hard for me to ever totally shift over the Bay Area teams, anyway, since apparently there is a big NorCal/SoCal rivalry (that I hate to tell you all the LA fans know and care nothing about. I was surprised when I moved up here. “You know that big NorCal/SoCal rivalry!” Me: “um…no?”) Every time I think I’m over it I hear the “Beat LA” chant and…I’m not over it. LOL Blood boiling, every. single. time.

Also, gotta say…the Warriors have, um, sucked, frankly, and that doesn’t give me a lot to hold onto in terms of trying to embrace my new hometown teams. I’d rather cheer for OKC.

So, generally, I’m an L.A. sports fans with (several) exceptions. I’m actually a UCLA sports fan for everything except WBB, and even then when the Bruins play Stanford I wear black since I’m in mourning one of my teams has to lose.

I’d be a bigger Sparks fan if I had been there long enough to form a better connection to the team, but I was a more hardcore ABL fan at the time (better basketball, period.) and then spent much longer with the Monarchs than I did with LA. Plus the Monarchs had Yo. :) And Baby Yo! And Ticha the Magician!

by Shannon Cotterell on Aug 12, 2011 7:30 PM EDT up reply actions

(And, of course, NKP14, but that was too obvious...)

…but then I thought it was so obvious that it was obviously lame if I left her out, so I have to give her a separate post of honor.

by Shannon Cotterell on Aug 12, 2011 7:33 PM EDT up reply actions

I have bookmarked your comment so I remember!

by thewiz06 on Aug 13, 2011 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions

Part of my limited NBA watching stems from fall/winter sports overload.

While I did watch some NBA games growing up, it was more common for me to watch college games with my family, and I really got into basketball through the college game. I still follow men’s college basketball as well as women’s college basketball. I’m also a college football fan and an NHL fan. This leaves my fall/winter sports calendar pretty full.

When the ABL was around, I found myself not following the NBA at all. Yeah, sorry, but, Yolanda Griffith > NBA. ;)

Now I tend to tune in toward the end of the NBA season once college football is over.

by Shannon Cotterell on Aug 10, 2011 4:28 PM EDT reply actions

How much

I follow the NBA vaguely, which is to say I know the stars and more or less what’s going on with the local team (Hawks). I’ll watch a few regular season games, but only after the Superbowl, and a good bit of the playoffs.

One of the things that fuels my WNBA fandom is the “in on the ground floor” feeling. I know all the history of the W, since I’ve been following it from Day One. That’s not possible with leagues that started decades before I was born.

by pilight on Aug 10, 2011 5:22 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs

I'm coming in late to this one.

Pretty much what pilight said. It’s good to be a member of a club that most people don’t even know exists, even though I’ve only been following the league since 2008.

As for my following the NBA, my answer is that I’ve never followed it at all. I only began following organized basketball in 2008 with the Atlanta Dream, in the sense that “I should support a local team of some sort, since I am an Atlantan.” After diving in head first into the W, I didn’t see any need to follow the NBA, since the W satisfied all of my pro sports needs.

by James Bowman on Sep 8, 2011 2:44 PM EDT reply actions

the NBA? that's that winter league, right?

Honestly? I’m not terribly interested, I’m not invested, and I doubt either will change.

When I was coming into my full passion as a Liberty fan, back in 1999-2000, I followed the Knicks and the Nets. Gus Johnson’s call of Allan Houston’s shot to beat the Heat is one of two sports calls I can recite from memory. (We can all guess what the other one is.) I loved me some Latrell Sprewell and some Aaron Williams. But that faded with time and Dolan.

I don’t enjoy the style of the NBA. Not my speed, pun possibly intended. I hate the change in the traveling rule.

I certainly can’t get into it by going to a game, not on a sales assistant’s salary. Occasionally one of my mom’s friends has tickets, and I’ll take ‘em if I don’t have anything better to do, like a St. John’s game or an LIU game or a Seton Hall game or a Columbia game or a Fordham game or maybe the dishes or the laundry. And when I do get to go, the crowd is a lot less pleasant and the place stinks of beer.

When it’s on TV, the narrative too often is “LOOK AT THE BIG SHINY STAR”, not “watch the game”. And I don’t enjoy that. (I don’t enjoy it in any sport, ESPN, and if you do Maya-Cam again, I will find my way to Bristol and hurt you.)

I’ve always said I got into sports bass-ackwards- the WNBA was my formative sports experience, and that led me to the college game when I was all “but why is the basketball gone?”, and that led me to the NBA. So my experience is way atypical.

I am the victim of a basketball jones.

by Queenie on Sep 9, 2011 1:27 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs