Your unpopular sports opinions?
I think the NHL should bring back ties instead of gimmicky shootouts. I also think the NBA should institute a 4 point line that was talked about not that long ago. Would shake up the game of basketball like it was when the 3 was instituted.
No politics or religion, please. This is a thread on your unpopular sports opinions.
DISCUSS
February 14th, 2015 at 9:34 AM ^
February 14th, 2015 at 9:36 PM ^
Was saying they should bring it back.
February 13th, 2015 at 4:45 PM ^
1. I think John Beilein is one of the best coaches in the country, only behind Coach K, Bill Self, and Billy Donovan. I even have him ahead of Izzo, Matta, Ryan, Calipari, Roy Williams, and Boeheim.
2. LeBron James is going to be viewed in 20 years as a better basketball player than Kobe and MJ.
3. Honestly breaking the color barrier kind of makes people forget how damn good Jackie Robinson was at Baseball.
4. This Patriots dynasty spanning from 2001-2014 is the most impressive feat in modern day sports. In the Salary Cap era, they won 4 Super Bowls, 6 Conference Championships, 12 Division titles, just incredible to think of.
February 13th, 2015 at 4:48 PM ^
I want the best team to win. I think they should cut the "dance" down to 16 teams and play best of 3 in each round with a best of 5 championship
February 13th, 2015 at 4:52 PM ^
the best run of the professional sports leagues in the United States. It's the one league (we'll see on Manfred) that isn't run by a fucking idiot. The league, especially under Silver, but under Stern as well, is generally responsive to the desires of its fans and more aware and alert of public perception than the NFL, MLB or NHL. The fact that they might actually do something about the conference imbalance, as opposed to simply standing behind "tradition" in the name of not making changes, is Exhibit A in my argument. The same goes for the discussions taking place to make changes so teams don't have incentive to tank.
The NBA may not make the most money, because people don't fawn over professional basketball the way people do over the NFL, but it's of better quality in terms of play and competition than people give it credit for. The league's opponents have to resort to bullshit like "the players are thugs" or "they never call traveling" to try and criticize the game. I don't know how it stacks up with the MLB in terms of international popularity, but I know the league does a good job of promoting itself overseas.
I believe this will meet the "unpopular" qualification on this board, but if you really, truly hate the NBA, I'd like to hear your argument as to why the league isn't good, without citing the traveling/"players are divas' argument.
February 13th, 2015 at 5:18 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 6:57 PM ^
I have three counters:
1) Basketball has international appeal - I feel like the NBA has stoked that to some extent, but I think a better run league would have seen an explosion in basketball around the world. It's an accessible, cheap game to play that doesn't require a lot of space or ice. It's everywhere, but why isn't it as popular as soccer?
2) Considering how popular basketball is in this country - I'd say there's more chance the average American has played basketball competitvely at some point than football or baseball - why is it in 3rd place on the American sports ranking? This kind of goes along with point one - but considering how great a product basketball is, and how appealing it is, I think it ought to be #1.
3) Franchise stablity in the NBA is lower than in the NFL or MLB. What happened to the Sonics was heartbreaking - and is probably the only reason I would say I hate the NBA.
February 13th, 2015 at 9:18 PM ^
1 - I'm not sure anything will take over soccer internationally. However, the NBA's executives, Adam Silver in particular, have a profound understanding of how important the Chinese market is in terms of international expansion. They've managed to take advantage of, among other things, the popularity of Asian (or Asian-American) players such as Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin, to the point where there are now over 100 million NBA fans in China. I'd say that's a good start, especially considering the local time when most NBA games are on is around 9 or 10 am, loosely speaking.
2 - Basketball is a great product, but you can't force people to enjoy it. People refuse to stop bowing at the NFL alter despite the shit they give us on and off the field. For example, let me present this baffling statistic: 4.25 million people watched Thursday Night Football on December 18, 2014. That was a 21-13 Jaguars win over the Titans. That same night, only 2 million people tuned into TNT for a really good Warriors-Thunder game. Why is this? To sum it up simply, people make really bad decisions because of their loyalty to brands. The amount of complaining about how meaningless the NBA regular season is gets to be really funny when you look at the viewership on that Thursday night.
3 - Can't answer you here. I was 17 or 18 when Seattle lost the Sonics and I don't know enough about what went on there.
February 13th, 2015 at 4:53 PM ^
Osgood wasnt that good and shouldnt be in the HOF. datsyuk and zetterberg are only above average also
February 14th, 2015 at 5:37 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 5:10 PM ^
The paint in basketball is too wide. It needs to go back to 6 feet. The big men in basketball aren't as great as those in the past.
February 13th, 2015 at 5:11 PM ^
I think the clock should stop when the ball goes out-of-bounds in soccer. As it is, if the team with the lead has a throw in, they can waste close to a minute deciding who will take the throw-in. That's cheesy.
February 13th, 2015 at 5:11 PM ^
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February 13th, 2015 at 5:14 PM ^
OP's that end with "discuss" suck.
February 13th, 2015 at 5:29 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 5:31 PM ^
I don't think fumble recoveries should be decided based on who comes out of the bottom of the pile with the ball. First guy the jumps on the ball and seems to have control of it should be the determining factor. If he's on the ground is is down.
February 13th, 2015 at 5:54 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 5:57 PM ^
Soccer is the worst sport ever. Period. I don't deny the skill and athleticism necessary to be good at it (or even to play a full game and be bad at it), but it's boring as hell and goes through agonizingly long stretches of exactly nothing happening. It's like watching a football game where neither side gets into the redzone, except there are no big hits or occasional long scores to shake things up. Soccer = team jogging, with 3 cool things a game happening (with only half of those cool things actually resulting in a shot on goal, let alone a score). Plus, the rules are deliberately and beligerantly anachronistic (stoppage time? GTFO), and allow for the stupidest tie breakers in any sport (shootouts suck, coin flip to decide winner actually happened in a women's world cup qualifier 10 or 15 years ago). It's the worst.
February 13th, 2015 at 6:00 PM ^
Don't hold back, man. Tell us how you really feel.
February 13th, 2015 at 6:07 PM ^
I enjoy listening to Colin Cowherd, so long as he's not talking about Michigan in any way.
February 13th, 2015 at 6:07 PM ^
I enjoy listening to Colin Cowherd, so long as he's not talking about Michigan in any way.
February 13th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
February 14th, 2015 at 3:30 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 6:13 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^
I'm sick and tired of people, especially about every blabbermouth on ESPN telling me every season what baseball needs to do to save itself. They seem to think the only way to make baseball watchable is to turn it into football.
MLB had 73.7 million people visit a game last season (7th all time) with steady growth since 1950. They have record tv contracts, the players have the most lucrative contracts in all of sports. Baseball has worldwide appeal and far more diversity than the NFL. The MLB stadium experience is far better and family friendly than the NFL.
Finally, considering the NFL's recent issues regarding CTE and off field issues one could make the argument that Major League Baseball is in a far better long term position.
That being said, I would trade it all for an October Saturday at the Big House.
February 13th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
Thank you!!!! +100
February 14th, 2015 at 8:20 AM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 6:30 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 7:28 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 8:19 PM ^
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February 13th, 2015 at 8:37 PM ^
February 14th, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^
Dont you mean he failed to defend the spread? Offense and Defense. Two different things Bro.
February 13th, 2015 at 8:39 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 9:19 PM ^
In college basketball, if a team is in the bonus and they get fouled, they should have the option of shooting free throws or taking the ball out of bounds with a fresh shot clock. I"m sick of the way basketball games drag at the end.
Also, each team gets one "do over" per half.
February 13th, 2015 at 9:29 PM ^
February 13th, 2015 at 9:24 PM ^
Enough with the gimmick already. Restore the original game and add more strategy and complexity back into the AL.
February 14th, 2015 at 5:32 PM ^
Basically, the NL already uses DH's, they just wait until like the 6th inning to do it.
February 14th, 2015 at 12:08 AM ^
February 14th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^
February 14th, 2015 at 4:30 PM ^
..and fights song
...and coeds etc.
Neither that, or make all baseball players take a steroid injection before the game...
...on the field so he can cheat and not take it.