Originally Posted by
BigWayne
I don't like stall ball, but not just because it sometimes loses a game or makes it a lot closer than it should be.
I don't like watching it.
Watching Duke basketball, it turns out, is entirely voluntary.
If all I cared about was that Duke wins the game....
I can assure that that's all many people care about. Even in the worst-case scenario, Duke is only playing stall ball for 4 or 5 minutes of playing time, right? So you can be thoroughly entertained by watching the first 3/4 of the game. And, since stall ball usually works, and you don't like to watch it, you could then turn the game off and check the result on SportsCenter or in your morning paper. Best of both worlds.
For me personally, I'm much more entertained when the team not only plays well, but goes on to win the game. And I prefer to watch to the end, even if the game is played at a slower tempo. To each his own, I guess.
I watch Duke basketball games because I want to
see our guys playing basketball well and hopefully better than the other team. Watching a guy stand there
dribbling around for 30 seconds and then chucking up a bad shot is not what I tuned in to watch.
So we've heard that it's not pretty. True. But a basketball game is not a painting on a museum wall or a symphony. It's a contest. The point of the contest is to win. If stall ball helps us to win, I'm good with it.
Now we are hearing that it's not entertaining enough. Well, OK, but a basketball game is not a movie or a play. It's a contest, and the point of the contest is to win.
If you all you want is entertainment, there are plenty of other options available.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust