The Collegian

Issue date: 5/12/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Courtesy of http://pro.corbis.com

In the late weeks of April, the NBA received a Godsend - the first-round playoff match between the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls has been hailed as one of the greatest playoff series of all time. Its no wonder why - seven games, seven overtime periods, and only one of them was a blowout. There was blood, stitches, shoving matches, technical fouls, flagrant fouls, comebacks, and more amazing shots then anyone could wish for. This historical series perfectly describes what basketball fans know-basketball is the greatest sport of all.

Basketball is easily the fastest paced of any sport. And not fastest by the scoreboard-although that is certainly true-but because basketball is so high paced you can not let up for a moment. Thanks to the up tempo style, anything can happen in a basketball game-someone could dunk, sink a three, or get blocked. It's non-stop action, which no other sports can claim.

Baseball and football both have a large amount of the waiting-game built into them. Certainly, soccer is constant, but you can go entire games without any scoring. Teams stealing and losing the ball back and forth for 80 minutes is not appealing. Basketball is at its heart a game where anything can happen at any moment.

This speed is the birth of comebacks. Unlike baseball and football, it is a lot easier to overcome a large deficit to get the win. Nothing is more exciting then seeing a twenty-point lead shrink to nothing in a matter of minutes-unless, of course, you are rooting for another team.

Any basketball fan knows that even when your team is up by double-digits, you can not stop worrying until that clock hits zero. The Bulls/Celtics game six is a perfect example: the Bulls were up ten points with just under nine minutes left in regulation before the Celtics went on an 18-0 run. The Bulls then responded with a 10-2 run of their own to force overtime.

The combination of athl-eticism and skill are unrivaled. Baseball requires a real ammount of talent, and football a high amount of athleticism, but basketball requires both. You could be the most athletic person in the world but you still might not be able to make a free throw. Flip side, you could be the most skilled basketball player in the world but it does not mean you will make it far. A example would be former college star Adam Morrion-who has amazing shooting skills and made a name for himself at Gonzaga, but now hugs the bench in the NBA. But when we look at the games-LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul-all are amazing athletes with an incredible skill.

Basketball earns the bragging rights as the highest intensity sport. While other sports are hampered with large amounts of waiting time, basketball players can never let up. Thank's to it's up-tempo play, anything can happen at any moment-and its this passion that makes basketball the greatest sport ever.

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