Why the NBA World Lost Its Joy
Edge of Sports
Dave Zirin / The Nation
4.8 • 616 Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Edge of Sports, we speak to Michael Lee of the Washington Post about why this has been the most dispiriting NBA season in recent history. We don’t just catalog the moments, though. We also try to understand the underlying issues.
We have Choice Words about the late Willis Reed, and what his life meant for the New York Knicks as well as the city. We have a Just Stand Up awards for the Maryland Terrapins lady women’s team that went on a great tourney run. We also have a Just Sit Down award for Silver who has not done a great job of handling the flame ups that have occurred during the NBA season. All that and more on this episode of the Edge of Sports podcast!
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Zirin, Willis Reed Was the Best of New York City
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/willis-reed-obituary/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the edge of sports podcast. I'm Dave Ziron. |
| 0:14.6 | If you listen to this pod at all, you know that I love me some basketball. |
| 0:20.4 | I coach it on the youth level. |
| 0:22.7 | I'll watch it in high school. |
| 0:24.2 | I'll watch college. |
| 0:25.3 | I'll watch the pros. |
| 0:26.4 | I'll watch women. |
| 0:27.4 | I'll watch men. |
| 0:28.4 | I'll watch West Fourth Street. |
| 0:30.3 | I'll watch women and men playing together on West Fourth Street. |
| 0:33.9 | Just show me a ball and a hoop and I'm in. |
| 0:40.8 | But I'd be lying if I didn't say that my first love, and therefore my primary hoops love, with the exception of the teams I coach, of course, |
| 0:47.1 | is the National Basketball Association. I love the NBA. I love the athleticism. I love the drama, and I love the characters. |
| 0:56.1 | And I love talking to people like our guests this week, |
| 0:58.6 | who are in the media and love the game as much as I do. |
| 1:02.4 | But this year for me has been unlike any other in my basketball-loving life. |
| 1:08.7 | I've never been witnessed to a season, 2022, 2023, so nasty, |
| 1:15.6 | so sad, and so joyless. I mean, the examples of this joylessness and the reasons for it abound. |
| 1:25.2 | I mean, there was LeBron James breaking the most hallowed record in his sport. |
| 1:31.0 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record, and the pursuit feels very joyless. Not the game |
| 1:37.4 | where he broke the record, but the pursuit, very joyless. There's Kyrie Irving, who at the start |
| 1:43.4 | of the year, you know, posting, |
... |
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