Steroids and Brawls: A study in contrasts

[lazarus]

MLB is currently embroiled in a massive steroid scandal. The MVP, Barry Bonds, is most likely juiced to the gills. Many records over the past few years are soon to be permanently stained. The integrity of the game has been seriously damaged.

But the NBA is the league in trouble, because a couple of loony troublemakers went into the stands after some rowdy fans. And one person got himself arrested.

The NFL recently had two stars accused of murder. One of them is on the cover of the NFL's flagship video game.

1 in 5 NFL players has been convicted of a crime.

But the NBA is the league in trouble. People actively rooted against the Olympic team as a bunch of spoiled babies (even though these guys actually showed up to play, as opposed to the dozen or more "stars" who didn't feel like representing their country. Shaq, Garnett, etc., received no real attacks for that. Just the ones who actually went).

So why is this?

Is it race? Is it the hip-hop culture the NBA has, for some reason, decided to adopt (even though the vast majority of its fan base isn't hip-hop sorts of folk)? Is it something else altogether?

[Spinzonner]

1. In all sports, especially pro but also creeping into college

you have lots of people who think because of their fame and wealth that the rules aren't really for them because they can buy or talk their way out of them or have some functionary do it for them.

[lazarus]

2. But

why does the public disdain seem to focus on the NBA in particular?

[Spinzonner]

3. Not sure it has but in this case

it may be because it has involved the fans instead of being confined to between players.

And in Basketball, fans are more consistently closer to the play and players than in other sports.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. I don't know but back when I could still tolerate Jay Leno,

I noticed he did a lot of jokes about NBA players and their many illegitimate children. There was a news story about this that spurred the jokes, of course. To me, fathering a slew of illegitimate children is worse than being on steroids because the steroids are hurting the guy taking them, not innocent children. But there are a lot of low-class and no-class pro athletes today. They make way too much money and it makes them crazy.

[kaitykaity]

5. MLB -- fans want home runs.

As one of my favorite sports columnists likes to argue,
people don't go to ball games to see punch and judy
singles, squeeze 'em out bunts, stolen bases, sac flies.

Fans go to see the big boppers. Fans want to see the balls
fly out of the yard.

So for years and years it's been a wink wink nod nod by
everybody in and around the league -- of course those
guys are juiced, but who cares as long as the long balls fly?

I really don't think fans want to see these spoiled NBA
players acting like thugs on and off the court. Remember
when Rasheed Wallace accosted an official after a game and
was only given a 7-day suspension? Or ahow about letting
Latrell Spreewell come back after he choked PJ Carlissimo?
(Not that PJ isn't an asshole, but he didn't deserve to be
choked.)

[chyjo]

6. If I were to make a guess

It would be that for one thing NFL players are at least forced to keep their screw ups off the field. Yes Ray Lewis should at the very least be doing time for accessory to murder, but on the field he is the consumate team player. At least every other NBA player is the consumate hotdog.

AS for MLB I would say they are under serious fire for steroids, When the nations legislature has threatened to mandate steroid testing I would say they are under a tad more scrutiny than the NBA. As for rooting against the Olympic team, I did think it was nice that another team won, whats wrong with that? Remember when the US hockey team beat the Soviets, that was nice too, nothing is more boring than the same damn team a Zillion years in a row.

[jakefrep]

7. Was I the only one to notice...

...that many of the idiots who rooted against the US Olympic basketball team are the same folks who would execute or deport anyone who dares to criticize Our Blessed President's War On Terra?

So the NBA has a couple of idiots - big deal. I don't see how that makes them all "spoiled thugs."

[kcr]

8. Becasue the narraitive of spolied NBA players

plays into the very real problem that plagues the NBA: the game is shit, by and large. The skill level really has gone down, and too many teams reply on one on one games. The narrative of "selfish players" provides a reason for that. So when an NBA player does something off the court that fits the meme, it is tied in the fans minds to the on court problems. Whatever problems the NFL has, they aren't related to players killing each other on the field. Jucing is too new a scandal in baseball, and, frnakly, too unproven, for it to translate to an onfield probem. For that matter, the problems the MLB has are not related to on field play -- people like the high powered game played in baseball now.