NBA & World Cup

Your TV habits these days will reflect whether you’re more influenced by the U.S. or the “rest of the world.” And I’m just as guilty as charged even if I haven’t had the chance to watch a lot of TV these days. I guess you already know what I’m talking about.

The ongoing NBA Finals is one of the most watched events in sports, drawing a worldwide audience especially via TV. The Lakers and Celtics will be on our TV screens for seven games (it looks like it will go that far), with Kobe, Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, KG, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen catching our attention. It’s been an annual tradition for fans worldwide to follow the NBA Finals. After all, all our idols strut their stuff there.

But did you know that there’s an event with an even bigger audience, both live and through TV? And it’s going on right now? It’s football’s World Cup, the biggest event for the sport which takes place once every four years. I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t even know about it and don’t blame you at all. Due to the influence of Uncle Sam, the Philippines is very much a basketball-mad country even if we don’t have the height and built for the sport. We love it so much that we even dream of being among the best in the world, a dream that is now getting to be more and more farther from reality.

On the other hand, the country’s following for football is nowhere near our love for basketball and other sports like boxing, billiard and maybe even volleyball. And the sad part about it is that one doesn’t need to have players six feet tall in order to excel. Just ask our neighbors in Japan and Korea, regular features in the World Cup as representatives of Asia. We drool at the sight of Kobe Bryant and Lebron James who stand 6-6 or taller, yet the average height of the Pinoy is below six feet. Yet why do we love basketball more than football? I really wish I had the answer behind all these as we’ll need to go back to history for this. What we do know is that the American influence had a lot of say in our preference for basketball over football. Correspondingly, football (or soccer in the U.S.) is one of the least watched among the professional sports there. Baseball, basketball, football, boxing, mixed martial arts, tennis and hockey draw much larger audiences than pro (or amateur) soccer.

People say it’s the lack of action that takes place (or that doesn’t take place) in football. Games are low-scoring and it will take a long while before a goal is scored. In basketball, boxing and other “faster” sports, a lot of action takes place leading to an abundance of points being scored. I guess it’s a case of us fans looking and thirsting for action. In football, the ball is passed around so many times among teammates before an attempt is made at a goal. And rare are times when many goals are scored. But this is where the fans differ when it comes to looking for action. Fans of basketball appreciate the fast pace of activity that leads to a goal being scored, whether this be made on a fastbreak or from a half-court offense.

On the other hand, fans of football admire not only goals being scored. A big part of their “appreciation” is also targeted at the way a team controls the ball, maintains long possessions and eventually scores goals. It’s a total team effort with almost every field player touching ball at least once. This is why when a goal is scored, all hell breaks loose. Scoring a goal is such a difficult task that there are times when scoreless draws are registered. Talk about difficulty! You spend a total of 90 minutes on the field and you still end up scoreless! This is something that basketball fans will never understand due to their desire for a lot of points scored in every game. It would be the same for boxing fans who want to see punches thrown and landed with opponents hitting the deck.

But that’s football. And more sports fans worldwide happen to be watching it compared to the NBA Finals. Surprised? 

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Time-out: Happy birthday to Cholo Verches of CSV Laundry. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].