Okay, “saving” may be too strong a word since the NBA is actually doing quite well for itself. How about “reviving interest?” As much as all sports fans talk about how much they love parity in sports, and how they like it when, say, a 10-6 Giants wildcard team knocks off the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl, the fact is that isn’t true. America loves dominance in sports. Period.
Don’t believe me? Ask yourself, would the Giants winning that Super Bowl have been any different from any other Super Bowl if it hadn’t been for the Patriots being undefeated going into the game? Sure, it was a good game, but everyone who tuned in that night did so for one of two reasons; to see the Patriots go 19-0 and win the Super Bowl or to see them fall flat on their face.
That’s it. Those are the only two reasons. There were zero “indifferent” fans that could care less about the game because their team wasn’t in it. I’ve said to my friends many times right before a Super Bowl when asked who I was rooting for, “I don’t really care who wins, I just hope it’s a good game.” There weren’t any of those fans that night. Why? America, for better or for worse, loves dominance in sports.
We will tune in, time and time again to see the latest dominant sports star or team. I never watched a single golf tournament before Tiger Woods started winning all those Majors, and I haven’t watched one since, but I tuned in on the last day of those events to see if he was going to win, again.
How many people tuned in to watch Ronda Rousey in her last fight? How many of the people who tuned in had ever in their lives watched an MMA fight before? Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were “must see TV” during their home-run chase, and then again when it was Barry Bonds. Michael Jordan and the Bulls never lost an NBA Finals series, but everyone tuned in to see if they would. The UConn women’s basketball team is still the only women’s basketball team I’ve watched, when they were on a ridiculous 90-game win streak. Mike Tyson in his prime was the talk of the country leading up to one of his fights. America loves dominance in sports.
This brings us to the, currently 23-0, Golden State Warriors. No NBA team has ever started a season 23-0. Only two other teams have ever won the 27 in a row (regular season) the Warriors have dating back to last season. The other two teams were 2012-13 Miami Heat, who also had a 27 game win streak, and the 1971-72 Boston Celtics who won an unprecedented 33 games in a row. The Warriors are dominant and America loves it.
Not since the Jordan-era have I seen so many non-NBA fans talking about the sport. LeBron James may still be the biggest star and most recognized by non-NBA fans, but Steph Curry is climbing that ladder at an alarming rate. My barometer for measuring an athlete’s popularity is when my wife knows who he is. My wife could probably name 10-15 athletes, which isn’t bad for someone who never watches sports, but of those 10-15 I would say that she knows 90-percent of them because their off the field/court issues made it into her gossip magazines.
Not since Jordan and the Bulls were winning championships has the NBA gotten this much national notoriety. Yes, Lebron James was the golden boy, and then he was enemy No.1, and now is back to golden boy again. And yes, he is probably the most recognized athlete on the planet, but right now the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry are taking the country by storm, and if they are still undefeated when they play LeBron James and the Cavaliers on Christmas day, that may be the single highest rated regular season game since Jordan’s return from his first retirement. And I, for one, will tune in to see it, because I too love dominance in sports.
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