Why Sports Are Just Tops

I hate when some people say sports are just people running around kicking balls.  Or for guys to touch each other’s balls.  That’s like saying art is just paint on a wall.  Or music is just noise.  It is insulting to me as a sports fanatic to have my favourite past time boiled down to its bare elements.  To all the non-sporty people out there reading this (yeah right, the people who read this blog are obviously sports fans, but this is hypothetical) then read on and I will tell you why basketball and sports in general are not just kicking or throwing a ball around to quench our primal instincts.

1.       It brings communities together

Go to a sold out Melbourne Tigers game and try and tell me that sports don’t bring people together.  Watching the first game of the season when the Tigers squared against the Kings the crowd was electric.  Seeing a prim girly girl next to an overweight aging man cheering together is magic.  Walk down a busy Melbourne street in peak AFL season wearing a team’s colours and don’t be surprised if you get stopped and have an impromptu conversation about the team’s performance.  Sports are ingrained into the population; it is in our bones.  This brings me to my next point.

2.       Everyone knows about sports

When I was growing up I was told by my mum that if I want to start a conversation with a stranger then I should use the FOSH method: Family, Occupation, Sports and History.  Any and all of these subjects are great starting blocks for striking up a discussion with a person you have never met before.  Think about that, in a sports mad country like ours sports are one of the basic talking points that can be used on almost anyone.  Most people will have a favourite sports team even if they don’t follow the sport or have no idea who is in the squad.  Living in New South Wales I have seen the impact sports have on people and surprisingly hardcore NRL fans still have a favourite AFL team and will check in on the league every now and again because sports are universal.

3.       It shows off the physical peak of human fitness

Pop quiz, what kind of men do women lust over?  Some correct answers are firemen, actors and sportsmen.  I really don’t think that a young 20-something female would be getting all hot and bothered over a sculptor.  Professional athletes are fit because their work demands it.  They push their bodies to their physical peak to get a better advantage on their competition.  Basketball players spend hours in the gym sculpting their body to match the needs of the game.  Some marathon runners have a resting heart rate in the 40s while LeBron James is six foot eight and can still make it up and down a basketball court like he is in fast forward.  This kind of body doesn’t come easy.  It shows an absolute dedication to their work and an unbelievably strong will which are characteristics most people look for in idols.  It is something to look up to so others can be motivated by their stories.  I remember watching a documentary with Jason Kidd who explained that he had to give up going to parties, give up on having a late night snack of leftover pizza and had to be focused on the goal, even before he was recruited to California for his college career.

Don’t think that all this talk of body sculpting and pumping iron re-enforces the ‘stupid jock’ stereotype.  Just look at flavour of the week Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks who graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics and a 3.1 GPA.

4.       It brings out the best of human spirit

As many veterans of various wars can attest, war is the ultimate test of the human spirit.  It forces all forms of humans to dig deep and push through whatever hell the battle is putting them through.  Other tasks that push people are great adventures, like climbing great mountains or long and dangerous treks through harsh environments, and sports.

I’m not saying that sports are as soul defining as going to war but they do share some common characteristics.  They both have the respective participants overcome enormous odds; both tasks have a strong emphasis on camaraderie and both assignments forces the members of each team to really think about how they are going overcome those odds.  I love watching a team go on a run that brings the crowd to its feet and the team literally moves to another level.  Basketball is all about runs and stopping the opposition making one while you push for yours is intense.  When a player’s body has given up on them their spirit and courage is needed to will them over the line.

5.       It is extraordinarily complex...

Watching an experienced coach outsmart their opposition is fascinating to watch.  Seeing a team change strategies on the fly because the other team changed their strategy the play before is fantastic.  The little things about basketball and sports in general are one of the main things that draw spectators in droves.  When Carmelo Anthony was in Denver and Danilo Gallinari on the Knicks they had a showdown where each player demanded the ball to square off against the other was goose bump inducing.  Duels in sports are integral, whether it be on a small scale of a full forward battling for position against a full back or on a much larger scale like a Union team desperately trying to hold off the incoming charge of the opposition while clinging to a tiny lead in the dying seconds.

Another part of the complexity is the plays, whether they be set or free styled.  It’s fantastic to see a cricket captain set a field for a specific batsman and seeing said batter fall into the trap.  This is especially noticeable in basketball, where set plays are designed to score baskets as efficiently as possible.  The usuals like the triangle and flex are well known around the basketball community but there are thousands of manoeuvres that test both defences and offenses alike.

6.       ...yet can be played by nearly everyone

There are so many people in the world that play sports it’s probably impossible to get an accurate number.  I would guess that at least 95% of the entire world population has played some kind of sport in the lifetime.  Most sports are extremely easy to get into but if people continue with their chosen love then they will be welcomed with statistics, strict dietary requirements and an itch that will never go away (in a good way).  This kind of accessibility just can’t be matched by other kinds of activities.

There are my six reasons why sports are more than cavemen having a “who’s bigger” contest.  If sporting snobs actually took the time to look into the different kinds of contests they might just get hooked themselves.