Some people just seem to have an in-depth understanding of sports. But for most people, it’s a learned skill. If a person has been watching basketball since they were three years old, then it’s inevitable that they’ll have a solid understanding of the sport. But what if you come to a sport relatively late? At that point, you’ll have some catching up to do — after all, there’s nothing that will annoy a long-term fan more than hearing an underdeveloped thought from someone who started watching the game yesterday.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways to nurture your reading of the game. In this blog, we’ll look at a number of tried and tested remedies for doing just that. You’ll be an expert in no time.
Play the Game
It’s one thing to watch a sport on television, another thing entirely to actually play it. New fans of sports tend to underestimate how good a player is, and overestimate how bad a player is. You know that player who you think is awful for your newly-adopted team? They’re still a million times better than any player you’ll have come across in real life. Pro basketball is another level of awesomeness that can’t be fully appreciated until you’ve spent some time with a ball in your hands. Look at playing some pickup games, and you’ll get a sense of what constitutes good and bad play pretty quickly — and if you don’t figure it out for yourself, then someone will surely tell you!
Listen to the Experts
You shouldn’t automatically accept a professional’s sporting opinion all the time, but when you’re first getting into a sport, it can be useful to see what people who really know the sport are thinking. If nothing else, it’ll tell you how to view the game. For instance, an expert might make judgments about what a player did right or wrong, and that’ll open your eyes about how you should look at a player too.
In this day and age, there’s no shortage of places to hear experts talk on basketball. There’s an ocean of great podcasts, including Thinking Basketball, Dunkers Spot, and NBA Hang Time.
Attend a Game
You can learn a lot from watching NBA games on television, but it doesn’t compare to seeing a game in person. Get tickets to a basketball game, and you’ll have the chance to see the world’s best players do their thing right in front of your eyes. Plus, you’ll get to see all the things that players do when they don’t have the ball. To increase your understanding, look at following a specific player you like for a few minutes. If you’re asking yourself ‘where can I buy tickets for an NBA game,’ then fear not — there are plenty of places to buy tickets, including ones for the best seats in the house. As well as helping you understand the game better, attending a game will also help bring you into the culture a little more; there’s nothing like a raucous atmosphere to help newcomers “get” what basketball is all about.
Dive into the Technical Aspect
You have to love the internet. It’s an endless source of fantastic information that just wouldn’t be possible — or at least easy — to get in the pre-digital era. On YouTube, you’ll find plenty of experts providing technical analysis of a team’s performance, which can help to show you the game in an entirely new light. Basically, it’ll highlight all the things you probably missed the first time around, which can be highly useful when it comes to watching your next game.
Find a Community
There’s only so much you can learn by watching videos. Sometimes, it’s best to get into a friendly debate with others. That’s one of the best things about basketball — everyone has an opinion! No matter where you live, there’ll be a community of other fans who will be more than happy to talk shop with you. Look to see if there are any basketball hangouts in your city and make a habit of going. You’ll learn a lot in the process, and may just make some long-term friends at the same time.
Give it Time
Finally, don’t expect to become an expert overnight. It takes time to become knowledgeable. They say that the best way to understand art is to look at one thousand paintings, and the same can be said of basketball. Watch enough games, and eventually, you’ll have confidence in your understanding.
