Although I am not anally ritualistic, one could call me a creature of habit. There are things about me that I tend to repeat over and over. Some of those are good and some not so good. For example, I like to be at the front of the line when boarding an airplane; therefore I am predictably early to the airport. I brush my teeth after brushing my hair. I eat street bagels for breakfast and “o-bento” Japanese lunchbox virtually every day (when in New York). I feel something is missing about a church service when there hasn’t been a congregational recitation of the Apostle’s Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. I only use Old Spice original scent stick deodorant. My comfort zone finds itself in the rituals of everyday life.
One ritual that I have maintained for the last two decades is the Wall Street Journal. Although I am not a professional market analyst, I find the paper interesting and stimulating. Some days, however, I just read it for the discipline, and this is where the ritual comes in. When I was in graduate school at Emory University, I had a professor who said “Read something every day, even if it’s the newspaper. Read it from cover to cover. Read the articles you are interested in. Read the ones you are not. Just read. It is the only way to stay current and informed.” I took that message to heart, and have as a ritualistic discipline read the Wall Street Journal as my first order of business every morning for the past 20 years. It is the “why” behind coming to work early every day. It is my time to read.
This morning, as I was reading the WSJ (and I no longer read the print version, I now read the online version), I came across an interesting article entitled “Why Do the British Stink at Basketball?” Hmmm. I never really thought about it. I guess I should have. I am married to a Brit. I eat shepherd’s pie and Yorkshire puddings. My son lives and breathes basketball. Once upon a time, I even had a subscription to the Wisdon Cricket magazine, which detailed the minutia of Cricket statistics for every team in the U.K. and the West Indies. But it never really occurred to me that the British stink at basketball.
The point of the article was to question the decision by the NBA that the New Jersey Nets and the Toronto Raptors would cross the pond next March to play a pair of regular season games --- the first ever --- in London. The move to play in Europe wasn’t a shock, as the league has players like Spain's Pau Gasol, Germany's Dirk Nowitzki and Serbia's Peja Stojakovic, who have become marquee names. In addition one of the NBA's newest owners is a Russian oligarch. The article goes on to say, “the only part of the spectacle that doesn't entirely add up is the league's choice of venue: London.” In the U.K., basketball not only isn’t one of the top 3 or 4 sports falling behind soccer, rugby and cricket. The popularity of basketball even falls behind snooker.
That being said, maybe the NBA sees the fertilizer potential behind that methane smell. Do the British stink at basketball? Yes. Do the Brits care about basketball? For those over the age of 16, not really. BUT, in a survey done by the United Kingdom Department for Culture, Media and Sport, children in London and Edinburgh ages 11 to 15 were asked what type of sports jersey they would like to own. 47% of these children responded “NBA jerseys”.
The NBA is not holding its nose. They are betting that “stink” you smell regarding the British and basketball is the smell of money.
Until next time,
WJLaneSR
1 comment:
Curiously I remember the same thing from about 15 years ago. I was finishing up the equivalent of High School and spending some time editing the sports pages of the school newspaper. The 'kids' of the time - aged 13 to 16 or so - were playing in a 'new thing', a basketball league with other schools in the region, and I remember the teachers telling me how enthusiastic they were, how much they loved wearing all the crazy clothes and being very cool. So I wonder what happened to that?
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