Back to the Meaning of Sports

Let me get this clear right now: basketball is just a sport, and therefore it shouldn't really affect the different spheres of your life unless it is to make you feel happier. No sports event, no matter how tough a loss can be, should ever be a factor for greater events in your life. That is, if you hate the Pistons and you are offered a great job by the Great Lakes area you shouldn't just say "no" just because you can't stand Richard Hamilton. You would honestly be behaving like a pure moron. The way I see it, sports are a way to spend your time off. Personally, losses rarely affect me too much and wins are a big coffee shot into my system in the mornings. Don't get me wrong: I love winning and I can't stand losing but I quickly realize that if the Celtics lose then they will win the next game for sure. In the NBA you just go on, the season is really long and you can't dwell on a regular season loss. The only frustrating loss was the one of game 7 last season because there was no other game to play and because it seemed all the world's law had punished our C's. But it's just a loss, we will win again this year, folks.

Having stated the basic facts about sports, I feel like asking the league to get back to what the real NBA should be about. I want a league in which fans and players can play with some toughness, in which referees are not the main stars. I want to see more Bogut vs Garnett on the court and less Villanueva twitter excuse. I want the league to let me love and hate as much as I want in a healthy way.

Sports hate is something good and normal. A fight between players on the court is not the apocalypse. Players have emotions and feelings and that's what fans love. I don't see the problem of it. Arguing a call shouldn't grant you a tech, we identify with our team's players and we also feel frustrated when Jermaine can't even look at a referee because of this.

Loving and hating in the NBA is healthy and I am sure no player wishes anything wrong happens to any other player in the league. For real. Our feelings, our emotions, our dreams should be on the court, Charlie V. The problem is that for some reason Mr Stern is making this league become something it never was: a league of twitters, of referees becoming the stars, of players sealed with the mute button of the dictatorship of the league of puppets. This league is being taken to a universe where it should never have been: twitting about what happens on the court because players don't know how to deal with the things that happen live.

Mr Stern, Twitter and ESPN's the Decision are not the realm of basketball and the true spirit of the NBA. Let the magic of the best basketball league in the world be back to where it belongs to: to the court.

Let me love and hate, let me jump and scream. Let players and fans get back to the NBA game.