NBA vs. College Basketball

It was fun to watch the high school football team work out as we ran our track workout. They seemed to be working hard, paying attention to their coaches, and exhibiting enthusiastic team spirit throughout the various levels of practice squad groupings. They just weren't catching very many passes.

Tanner was wondering where his footspeed would rank him among the kids we were watching. Since he can easily beat Pat and me on track sprints, and says he can outrun ALL of his frisbee buddies, he seems confident that he'd stack up well against them. I'm not so sure. It's one thing to outsprint a couple of ancient and arthritic distance guys -- and totally another to race the dudes who are chosen for the team because they have worked on acceleration and velocity. Perhaps we'll have to set up some sort of challenge one of these days.

Speculation notwithstanding, though, Tanner ran his track workout well. In fact, we all had a good workout. I was most pleased with the fact that I was able to hold some speed over several repeats without any hint of discombobulation. It was good. And what better way to top off a good workout than by clogging arteries with toxic glop? That's right -- we went to Taco Bell for our post-workout dinner.

And as always happens at Taco Bell, the ensuing philosophical discussions resonated with profundity. I'm not necessarily saying that eating double-cheesy-beefy-crispy pseudo-Mexican industrial paste is a requirement for the road to intellectual enlightenment...but I would bet the world would be a more peaceful place if international Summit Meetings were held at the Bell. Who'd want to start a war when you have a plate full of Volcano Tacos and unlimited soda refills?

This evening's topic was initiated when Tanner asked Pat why he was SOOO enthusiastic about college basketball, and yet so apathetic about the NBA. After all, the NBA unquestionably has the players with the finest talents...why wouldn't the pro game be a superior entertainment product?

Pat's answer was basically that all of the college kids try hard all the time, and the pros don't. After all, the students have fewer games (so don't get as exhausted), have scholarships, school pride, and pro draft positioning at stake -- so they are fully committed to playing their best. The pros, on the other hand, are going to get paid their millions of dollars whether they win or lose, or whether they sprint back down the court or merely stroll.

That's a summary of course -- and each of those points are certainly debatable. But the other interesting part of the discussion was about the tattoos and "gangsta" attitudes that seem to permeate the NBA. Since my brother and I were raised in a world where Ward Cleaver was the Supreme Arbiter of Propriety...well, body art and thuggishness are simply not something we're attracted to. But to Tanner's generation, Ward (and any of his black & white fuddy-duddy contemporaries) are merely Jeopardy questions, and have no relevance to today's society. The concepts of courtesy, reliability, politeness, respect, and pants worn at the waist -- these are relics of a distant and shameful past, and are to be scoffed at and ridiculed.

Of course, the kids of my generation went through beatnik and hippie phases, and even (gasp!) disco...and came out the other end with jobs, health insurance, and Roger Maris haircuts. I suspect that being a tatto-removal specialist will be a lucrative profession when this generation matures a bit. And there will also be a sudden surge in belt sales.

We'll have to wait and see, won't we? In the meantime, have a great day!