Since the douchebag squad known as the Miami Heat have won the NBA Championship, I've been conflicted. In the interest of full disclosure, basketball is my least favorite of the major sports and I detest how the current version of the Miami Heat came together. There's something deeply ingrained in me that says teams should not be millionaire friends coming together to win championships. Moreover, LeBron James is a dope of the highest order. He's not a bad person from a universal perspective. He's not a rapist or murderer. But in a regional, nationalistic sense, he's an unmitigated piece of shit. And some might say I'm jealous of his life. Not really. I'm jealous of the fact that a borderline legal moron was able to use his natural abilities, with of course a modest amount of hard work, to become a millionaire superstar. However, you couldn't pay me enough to live his life. He lacks awareness and the entourage of friends from high school that he keeps are going to sink him one day. But I digress. I'm conflicted over this team because in the simplest way possible sports are entertainment and entertainment is about getting people to watch.
This confliction comes down to the fact that sports are entertainment. When a guy and a couple friends head out to the park to play softball or a high school team suits up for a football game, that sport is primarily about the fun of the sport. Which is essentially entertainment on a minor level. The players are entertaining themselves. Of course, some might say that a high school player might be trying to get a scholarship or whatever. In the words of the recently departed James Gandolfini's most famous character, "Irregardless". At the end of the day the outcome of the game does not decide lives so it is just entertainment.
Pro sports thrive on ratings and ticket sales. If people aren't watching, then the owners lose money and if the owners lose money they either sell the team or try to bring in cash by getting better players or more marketable ones at least. Leagues work on the same principle, except switch players with teams and sell the team with let the league fold.
In thinking about how this applies to the Miami Heat, we have to see their marketability. A positive is the fact that they have two of the greatest current basketball players on their roster. A negative is the city. Miami sucks for sports because no one really cares. A negative should be a combination of players and city. Asshole players, shithole city. Should be a clear cut no-no. Yet, they drew amazing numbers to their game 7 and I haven't gone a week without seeing some mouthbreather wearing a James jersey. Why? Why does this team have so many supporters and people who want to watch them? It puzzled me until I realized what shows are on TV. Reality shows. Douchebags and assholes and dolts and dopes. All mucking about with people watching them. And I hear from folks who watch these shows that they hate this character and this one is so stupid. My question is, "why do you watch?". I deal with imbeciles every day, why should I watch a fake version of them on TV? Apparently some folks enjoy watching these types of people. And thus, my conflict continues. Is a team full of hated players good because they drive up ratings and money? Good for the sport? Probably not. Good for the fans? Well some people like villains. But then again, if you're really invested in a team then every opponent is a villain. Good for the league? Probably. David Stern must cry with joy every time the Heat win because he knows that all their negative attention is still attention. And attention means money. Even if it means losing fans of the sports because of the Heat and what they represent.
In the end, that seems to be all that matters. Movies fight for box office dollars. TV shows fight for ratings, which means dollars. That seems to be a sport in and of itself. So at the end of the day, entertainment and sports are the same beast, just different douchebags within them.
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