College vs. NBA

Call me what you will but I firmly believe that college basketball is more interesting than the NBA. Before you call the cops on me hear me out. I've heard arguments that the NBA has the best players and that the level of play is far above the college levels. I'm not going to dispute that the NBA players are the best and they could beat a team of college players. I do understand they play on a different level which is why if you refer to my initial statement I said "more interesting". I find that college basketball requires more investment in following and has a far larger pay off. For the NBA there is always the regular season then playoffs and for college there is the regular season and the tournament. The NBA season is around eighty games (exception going to seasons where the season doesn't start off on time for various reasons like a lockout for example) and for a good majority of those games teams that are playing aren't interesting match ups. Watching a team like the Lakers beat up on a team like the Knicks isn't a big deal and for Knicks fans when they do upset the Lakers its not like their entire season has become a success. In college basketball it is a very likely possibility that a team beating a single ranked opponent can make their entire season. If Duke were to lose to our very own Long Beach State team, it would be the talk of the rest of the season. For the students playing in college basketball there is so much more on the line, it isn't their profession , they aren't getting paid to play and they put in close to the same amount of work as a professional player would. So while the skill level may be entirely different the player's effort will be completely different. In college basketball the players are changing with a frequency seldom seen in the NBA, having to constantly recruit and build up new players makes the coaches at the college level that much more impressive. Watching Coach K or Tom Izzo go out there and compete successfully year after year even though they may have lost three starters and a solid couple bench players means so much more than watching Phil Jackson coach legends like Micheal Jordan and Kobe Bryant. In the NBA players prove themselves and stick around, in college they have a few years to show everyone what they are made of before they leave. Down the stretch NBA playoffs have just as much intensity as the clinching games for the tournament. Watching the NBA finals is just as fun as watching some early match games of the NCAA tournament but watching a story like Georgetown unfold is an unmatched phenomenon that any sport can compete with.


Ryan Plunkett Kin 332I