The victorious Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James, tied the Boston Celtics for most NBA championships with 17 by defeating the Miami Heat in six competitive games in the series ending on Oct. 11. Students and faculty said these final games were “high-level” and the approach of teams playing fewer games were interesting to see.
Austin Zacher, a junior from Montana studying exercise and sports science, said competition allows major sporting events like the NBA Finals to draw more casual followers. “Playoff games just have a different feel than regular season games. The finals are fun to watch because the players know there is so much more is at stake,” he said. “It is high-level basketball.”
The 2020 NBA Finals were played at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., as part of the NBA’s plan to finish a season affected by COVID-19, according to ESPN.
Chad Ford, an associate professor in the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts, is also an NBA draft insider for ESPN. To Ford, the NBA Finals are like a chess match. “A potential seven-game series gives lots of opportunities to devise game plans you don’t see in the regular season,” he explained.
But what drew casual followers this year, according to Ford, were the approaches of the Lakers and the Heat. “There’s the star power of the Lakers, and there’s the team approach of the Miami Heat with no superstars,” he explained. “When two teams like that play together, it’s always interesting to see which approach will prevail.”
Thomas Nebeker, a junior from California studying exercise and sports science, said he is a casual follower himself. “It is human nature; we always love to see an even fight,” he said. “When you get to the championship round, it is the best of the best.”
After playing youth sports in the small farming community of Susanville, Calif., Nebeker shared he was invited by his high school friend to join a traveling club basketball team and quickly became known for his intensity. “It started when we were losing in a game in Las Vegas,” he said. “I started to chase everyone defensively and started getting vocal. I wanted the opposing players to feel my presence on the court.”
But Nebeker explained he knows it’s just a game. “I have never understood burning someone’s jersey or fighting at games,” he remarked. “A lot of people idolize athletes like LeBron James because they are role models. That still does not give people the right to overreact about the game.”
For Nebeker, sports are a social rather than a physical activity. He said he watches game highlights to discuss with others. “What I like most is you are still watching the progress of All-Stars,” he explained. “But that certainly does not take away anything from the meaning of sports.”
Brent Green, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education & Social Work, said he also follows most of the games online. “I have seen students get pretty excited in class about these events, and sometimes it does make me feel curious,” he said. The games also remind Green of when he used to follow sports closely as a young student, he described. “When I see students reacting, it sometimes takes me back to those younger years.”
But like Nebeker, Green shared he understands sports are just games. “I think we can all get a bit excited about things we feel are important to us, and we can sometimes get angry at others for not sharing the same degree of fanaticism,” he explained. “We can try to seek to have conversations with those who share the same degree of enthusiasm. Those might be a little more rewarding.”
Because of the unique scheduling, Green said he enjoys the increased engagement he gets from students in the linguistics courses he teaches. “Good teachers engage students by linking the discussion to what they are studying,” he explained.
In linguistics, Green shared, students learn about transcribing into the International Phonetic Alphabet script. Thus, Green shared, “Maybe if I found a good quote from a professional player and then asked them to transcribe it, they would be interested.”
For Ford, sports became his passion after “falling in love” with it while playing baseball and basketball, he explained. He created a sports website called sportstalk.com with a fellow graduate in 1996 that was acquired by ESPN in 2001. Ford said he became a senior editor and writer before he returned to BYUH in 2005.
Deseret News writer Trent Toone writes Ford lives a dual life since he remains involved with ESPN during the NBA draft, but also warns students won’t discuss sports in Ford’s classes. “I don’t talk about it,” Ford said to Toone. “We have so many other things to talk about.”
Ford said he believes next season will start in early 2021, though the NBA has always played on Christmas Day. “They would love to start on Christmas, but they want more certainty around what happens with COVID-19,” he said. “The league really wants the fans back in the arena, and they are ready to wait for that.”
For Zacher, the uncertainty about next season is part of a new normal. “I don’t think a lot of people mind. Most people are happy to get to see this season finish,” he said.
In March, ESPN senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski said finishing the NBA season, not a championship, was at stake. Following the season’s suspension on March 11 by Commissioner Adam Silver, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending no gatherings of more than 50 people for eight weeks, Wojnarowski tweeted that “[the league was] scouting for arena dates through August.”
But as the victorious Lakers celebrated, Commissioner Silver declared, “We found a way to play through a pandemic [and] keep everyone safe. For that, every team should be celebrated.”