10-30-2020, 11:44 AM
(10-30-2020, 11:20 AM)fifteenth Wrote: I thought that basketball was played in most of the rest of the world (outside the U.S.) with more of a team mindset. I was born in the U.S. and have always lived here, but I've always liked hearing about this team mindset, because I prefer to think that way as well. I abhor the "one alpha" mindset. I think it's silly.
I can speak for Europe, I am not familiar with situation in other parts of the world. It is more of a team sport, but the reason imho is that there is far, far, far less money involved. And what brings money is team success, not star players. I don't think teams get considerable income from merchandise sales and the only way to be a star in fans eyes is if you bring team success. Thats why european leagues are not star driven. There are less games and each game is usually important. Fans are much more pationate and every loss is "the end of the world".
That's why coach is king and European guys are used to being yelled at, which it doesn't seem to be the case in USA - a lot of US players complain about this part of European basketball. If you make two stupid moves, european coach will bench you for a couple of minutes no matter what your name is or how much you are paid. If you are lazy, you will be benched. There is absolutely no way european coach would watch DeAndre Jordans lack of effort he showed in Dallas for more than half of a season. He would be benched after five games and they would probably reach an agreement to terminate contract.
NBA is all about stars. If you are a star you get media attention, your merchandise is sold and you get more endorsement money. Fans seem to follow stars and accept lack of success as something normal. Not to mention all the negative influence of social media. My guess would be, that was far less of that in the 80s so stars could coexist. Can you think of a more recent example, where two players shared equal star status on one team? I think as much as players can be unselfish, the star status is important. The whole league is designed this way and either they like it or not, it is affecting every one of them.