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the spork
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for anyone who has ever(admittedly or otherwise) spent time watching pro wrestling,
Outside of a few kids and a few people who take the Weekly World News as gospel, every fan knows that it's really just a soap opera like the ones on daytime tv.
the conflicts and their outcomes are determined by a team of writers, who determine, based on fan reaction, after a while, who will become champions.
charisma and marketability to the fan base are the key (in the old days when the promoters sold it as a legitimate sport, the athlesticism and in-ring ability were the two governing factors, but that hasn't really been true since the mid 80's)
here's where i begin to draw unflattering comparisons between the NBA and the WWF (and at least the WWF admits its all a storyline)
*POINT ONE: the remark i made about how marketability is rewarded and charismatic personalities are the key.
Wrestling shows have such characters in the person of Steve Austin, The Rock and other such characters who know how to get a reaction from the fans, these are the guys who one ususally finds in the main events
Basketball has teams that are perennial playoff contenders, these teams usually have some colorful player who galvanizes fan reaction, in the heyday of the Chicago Bulls, you had the overacheiving straight-arrow good guy in Jordan and the wild and crazy Rodman, the Lakers had the "Showtime" team in the 80's and know have the volatile love-hate pairing of Shaq and Kobe, the sixers had the colorful and talented Doctor J in the 70's and 80's and now has the talented but hard-edged Iverson, i could go on, but i think i've established a point here
*POINT TWO: In wrestling, the referees conveniently miss certain infractions and call others so as to allow the match to come to its predetermined conclusion
in basketball, especially at playoff time, the referees conveniently miss certain infractions and call others seemingly dependent on who is the favorite to win (if you've ever seen Magic Johnson/Shaq/Bird/Kobe/Jordan/Barkley knock someone over on a drive to the basket and have the referee call the other guy for the block when it was clear that the star was guilty of charging, you know what i mean)
*POINT THREE; In a wrestling match, the underdog will either start out strong, dominating the early going, or have a resurgence in the middle of the match to make it look like he's really got a shot at winning before the more established star puts him away for the finish. Matches that are short and clearly one-sided are called "squashes" and are designed to illustrate the power of the star player. A surprise win by a lower tier performer is a sign that they are about to be given a chance to move up or a way to build on the drama by making the star performer seem more vulnerable.
in basketball, especially at playoff time, if not the games, then the series will play out in such a way as to foster the belief that the underdog might surprise everyone and come away with the series, otherwise, we call it a "sweep"
*POINT FOUR: Until recently in wrestling, there were performers whose sole purpose was to lose to the more established players, making them look good, these came in two tiers, those who were booked to lose to anybody and those who were boooked to lose in better looking matches to higher tier stars, these guys are called "jobbers" and their higher profile counterparts are "JTTS" (Jobber to the Stars)
In basketball, we have perennial jobbers in the LA Clippers and the Washington Wizards, we have Jobbers to the Stars in teams like the Phoenix Suns, the Utah Jazz, Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat
a perfect example is the Phoenix Suns, in 1976 they had the great championship series agains the perennial champion Boston Celtics including the classic double-overtime game which fulfilled my other points as well including the look like they might pull out and win the series
afterwards, they spent a few years as middle-tier playoff competitors (or "mid-carders" as they are called in wrestling) they were plagued by scandal and spent the early part of the 80's as cellar dwelling jobbers before being elevated again to JTTS status in their great championship series against the Chicago Bulls in 1992 including the classic doiuble overtime game which...well you know what i'm getting at here
that's my sports rant, thanks
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