Sunday, March 29, 2009

Celebrate with Me ... Come On!

The difference between the NBA and the NFL? Celebration penalties.

The NFL has been renamed the "No Fun League" for a reason. Instead of encouraging creativity in end zone celebrations, the NFL has over the years penalized players for any and all entertaining end zone shenanigans. Off the top of my head, several celebrations come to mind, including T.O.'s homage to the fastest man on the planet Usain Bolt, Santana Moss's assault on dirt, and Ocho Cinco's cameraman fun.

The NFL in 2006 made the notorious excessive celebration rule change. No props and no celebrating on the ground. The stated reason for the rule is to promote sportsmanship.

Fine. I understand wanting to promote sportsmanship. In the old days, nobody celebrated. They acted like they had scored before. That is a good mantra to teach young players.

Unfortunately, some of these celebrations are too darn entertaining to penalize. Lets give the fans what they deserve, entertainment. As long as the celebration isn't malicious or taunting, let the players have their fun. Because when the players have fun, so do the fans.

These days celebrations are becoming more and more common in the NBA. The Cavs seem to have 3 or 4 different celebrations for the games, from pretend picture taking, to pretend baseball games, to sparking fires. I can't wait to see what they have in store the rest of the year.

Granted, the NBA celebrations are not done after scoring, like in the NFL. That just isn't possible given the lack of time outs after scores. In the NBA, the celebrations occur after a time out is called, or during the pregame. But the creativity we have seen lately in the NBA is just like that in the NFL. I just hope the NBA rule makers embrace this new form of game entertainment.

Until next time, this is Barry Lakin saying all the world is schlach.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dont mind the pregame rituals the Cavaliers have, but when Boobie hits a three pointer and they "ignite the flame" infuriated me, the guy is having a terrible year. I suppose if i hit ONe 3 pointer every month i guess you have to get excited. He is no superstar as he thinks he is gods gift to this team. If i were Mike brown he'd already be out of the rotation and play TK. Sick of seeing his "star" haircuts.

lenny k said...

Ya he has had a tough year shooting-wise, but i think the fact that they did that at the timeout shows how close this group really is, i didnt see lebron sitting down much in the fourth quarter when he was "resting his legs" he was jumping lauging and excited for his teammates the whole fourth quarter- along with everyone on the bench. Its not abuot how many shots you make or if your the 9th man in the roation with this team, everyone is excited and pulling for each other which makes this team so fun to watch.