Keith Olbermann Thinks The NBA outperforms The NHL In The States Because We Watch What We Are Told Is The Best

I am a huge hockey fan. I am also sufficiently more than a casual basketball fan. With that said, I can attest to nearly every single reason that Olbermann just mentioned as to why the NHL playoffs are more entertaining than the NBA playoffs. However, I can also concede that I am in the vast minority. Now do I watch more National Hockey League games because I am able to look past what the American media tells me to watch? Well, I just paid $40 to be in a standing room only bar to watch Mayweather and Pacquiao put me to sleep for 3 minutes at a time. So I guess I am not exactly the most capable when it comes to avoiding the multimedia monster that professional athletics has become. The reason that I like watching hockey more is because I like the sport of hockey more. I agree with Olbermann that playoff hockey should be bigger, I just disagree with his reasoning as to why it is not. 

Now I get who Keith Olbermann is, and I get what Kieth Olbermann does. He attempts to be controversial for the sake of being controversial. I would be hypocritical if I said I wasn't partially to blame for doing the very same thing. It's just very hard to take him seriously when he tries to tell me that airing a nightly pregame/postgame show that happens to be popular in Canada would somehow erect hockey's popularity to a point which it has never reached before. You know what people that don't like a sport don't want to watch? An hour or so of commentary on that sport. For all the hockey naysayers there are nearly as many people that love the sport and hate basketball. You think those people are staying up late to watch Kenny Smith diagram plays on 'Inside The NBA'? You think if we just aired a bunch of Americans babbling about the intricacies of soccer every week, the entire nation would care more about the sport for more than a week or two every 4 years? 

People care more about basketball because damn near every kid that partook in youth sports played a year or two of basketball. Nearly every kid knows what it's like to make a bounce pass or go through the layup line. The percentage of America's youth that participates in hockey pales in comparison to that of basketball. That's not an indictment of our media circuit. Hockey is just a much bigger part of the Canadian culture. Sorry Keith, but people like what they like, and the environment in which those people are raised has a lot to do with that. Unless you want to shell out the excess money necessary for all children in the United States to play hockey growing up then just accept playoff hockey for what it is. Two months of parity ridden professional athletics that captivates those who already love the sport. I think Keith and I can agree that others are missing out, but that's a decision they made, not a decision their television made for them.