NBA vs NCAA: The NBA is Superior to College Basketball, Despite the Beliefs of Many

Throughout the Internet, the media and message boards anoint March Madness, the NCAA Tournament and college basketball as the best basketball and vilify the NBA, the league which features less than the top 1% of NCAA players. After watching the NCAA Tournament's anti-climatic finish, despite the presence of its top two teams, would fans really rather watch Florida vs. Ohio State than the seventh game of a Dallas vs. Phoenix Western Conference Finals? Personally, I would forfeit watching the entire NCAA Tournament if my choice was to watch either the NCAA Tournament or a seven game Phoenix/Dallas series.

People love the pageantry and amateurism of college basketball, while they detest the multi-millionaire, spoiled brats of the NBA. They envision college players working hard, going to class and being part of the college campus; they picture the star shooting guard as the kid across the street. They figure NBA players spend all night at strip clubs and roll into the arena, throw on a jersey and jack up shots; for most people, they have a hard time imagining someone they know playing in the NBA.

These caricatures are totally false. Sure, some college players embrace college life, love attending class and work hard. However, others walk around campus like they own the place, talk back to professors and make a mockery of the idea of student-athletes. Some NBA players frequent strip clubs, have outstanding warrants and take bad shots; however, others arrive three hours before a game to workout after making a public appearance at a school or hospital.

NBA players get paid well. And, they are very, very good. Most fans wish they could feel like LeBron James soaring through the air, or Kobe Bryant draining a game winning fall-away jumper. NBA players suffer from fans' jealousy. NBA players are too good. They do things most people believe are impossible. And, because the public believes these feats to be super human, they fail to relate to the players. This is why kids relate better to NBA players: kids do not believe these feats are impossible or superhuman, but a challenge for them to pursue. The public enjoys the college game because it is imperfect and its imperfection allows teams to be upset, so there is always a possibility of watching history, of watching the #2 seed lose to a #15 or a Villanova beat Georgetown. In the NBA, the best team almost always wins; sure, there are upsets in the regular season, but the length of the regular season renders most upsets inconsequential by the end of the season. While we spend the first two weeks absorbed in college team's non-conference schedules and re-hash a BCS team's loss to a sub-200 team on a neutral floor, nobody remembers if the Charlotte Bobcats beat the San Antonio Spurs in November.

College fans typically root for a college, typically an alma mater or a successful program with good looking uniforms. College is a coach's game, as successful college coaches are the face of the program and more fans can relate to Coach K or Rick Pitino than Dwight Howard or Allen Iverson. When fans picture a college basketball program, a coach's name is almost always immediately associated with the program: UCLA-John Wooden; Indiana-Bob Knight; Carolina-Dean Smith; Duke-Coach K. Only a few programs are more closely associated with a player than a coach: West Virginia-Jerry West; USF-Bill Russell; Virginia-Ralph Sampson.

In the NBA, few coaches are associated with their teams. Red Auerbach is really the only one, and that is partially because he was the President of the Celtics for so long; also, one could argue Larry Bird and Bill Russell are every bit the face of the organization. Pat Riley is synonymous with "Showtime" and the Lakers, but Jerry West, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson are much more the face of the Lakers. Phil Jackson is as dominant a personality in coaching, but nobody thinks of Jackson when they think of the Bulls: everyone thinks MJ first.

Finally, because NBA fans pay so much for tickets, they tend to believe they are, in some ways, paying the players directly. In this way, fans take a small sense of ownership of a team, which fuels their animosity when they perceive a player underperforming or a coach making a mistake. They work hard to afford the money to pay for a seat and a beer and they want the same type of effort. However, most people ignore the fact that they did not work with 100% intensity every single working day. Workers have highs and lows. Accountants work much harder during tax season than in June; teachers are far more stressed right before exams and during grading than during the second week of the school year. However, fans forget these facts when they feel their favorite player is not playing his best. Fans are personally insulted by this lack of effort. And, for some reason, fans never associate this with college players because we acknowledge that college players are imperfect. If a college team lays an egg and plays a terrible game, it is okay because the players tried hard and they play for the alma mater. But, at a professional game, boos reign down from the crowd.

Many believe college basketball is better than the NBA; some even believe women's college basketball is more fundamental than men's college basketball. It's not even close. I have worked with players at all levels. In my experience, NBA players outwork college players without question. In many ways, that's why they are professionals. The average fan believes NBA players only get to the NBA because they are tall, fast, athletic, etc.: they do not credit these talented individuals for the work it took to get the NBA player to the NBA. There are a lot of tall people who never got a whiff of the NBA. However, nobody questions the work it took for a doctor to become a doctor; we don't sit back and say that he was just born a whiz at science and never really had to work to get to be a doctor: it's all natural skill. That's crazy. But, that's the attitude toward an NBA player.

I worked in a gym a couple summers ago where Sebastian Telfair trained. Telfair is an average, at best, NBA point guard. However, every day during the off-season, he lifted, did drills and played for a minimum of three hours. Watching him up close was unreal. His control of the basketball and his ability to change speeds was jaw-dropping, and I have been fortunate to work with McDonald's All-Americans, pro players, etc. I am not easily impressed. It was unreal. And, he's average.

I am tired of the rants against the NBA. For those who champion the college game and disparage the pro game, I have one question: how did the NBA players get to the NBA? Who developed the players? That's right. Those who dislike the pro game, but love the college game forget that the mistakes they criticize in professional players they ignore in college players because they expect imperfection.

The NBA is a victim of its own success. The players are so talented and so rare that they are so distant from an average fan. And, when a mistake is made, its effect is heightened because fans' expectations are perfection. Pros have no room for error because fans take on a twisted sense of ownership and have a distorted view of their own work lives. But, more than anything, fans can not relate to professional athletes like they can college athletes, which is why the majority of writers and message board posters claim NCAA basketball is superior to the NBA even though a Championship Game featuring at least eight future pros is several levels below a play-off series in terms of athleticism, talent, intensity, intrigue and entertainment. On Final Four weekend, with a repeat National Champion playing one of the most heralded recruits in decades, as well as arguably the best women's college basketball player winning her first national championship, by far the most entertaining basketball was the Dallas/Phoenix showdown, and it wasn't even a close game.