I have fallen in love with the NBA. Just before the new year, as part of a series I am filming, I watched a game of basketball and enjoyed it more than almost any other sporting event I have attended. This was a huge surprise. I have always been cynical about Brits who like American sports; hipsters prancing about in their Chicago Bulls vests and trying to recreate White Men Can’t Jump in Burgess Hill. But now I think they might be right.
I still love football, of course. All of the things I love in life I have loved for the longest time: hip-hop, Arsenal, comic books, gaming, breakfast cereal, leaving phone chargers in hotels. But this is the first time in years that I have got into something new. I had assumed that my interests were now ring-fenced, like my friendship group. To become friends with anyone new at this stage, we would have to have a connection better than the one I have with my wife. In all honesty, I’m much more in the market to cull some of my current ones.
Finding a new interest has been genuinely exciting. There is something great about getting into something as a beginner. You can spend hours on the internet, finding out everything you need to know. I hadn’t even chosen a team, so I was faced with the thrilling prospect of watching games, reading about the various players and making a decision down the line. I have been boring my friends by saying things such as, “I was thinking about supporting the Bucks because I really like Giannis, but then I was like, how often am I going to visit Milwaukee, y’know?” It was like starting a new relationship, except I could be as keen as I liked without basketball thinking I was a psychopath.
I immediately set about finding out how to watch the games. There is some coverage on UK TV, but I wasn’t going to be satisfied with what little is available to the plebs – I wanted the whole lot. So I signed up to a package from NBA online that gives me full coverage of every game. It was expensive, but I wanted to show commitment to my new lover hobby.
What I didn’t realise is how many bloody games there are – about 1,200 per season, and the teams play every other night. Initially, I was delighted, and settled down to watch a game a night. My wife found it a bit weird: she had just about come to terms with the manchild set of hobbies I already had, and now I was actively pursuing a new one.
Because I hadn’t chosen a team, I had no way of selecting which games to follow and ended up trying to stay across all of them. This was obviously impossible, and so I then resolved to watch one game a week and highlights of the others. Even this became too much of a commitment, so I just kept watching highlights. But the games come thick and fast, so I started watching highlights of some and just checking scores of others. It was about then that I realised that I don’t actually have time for another interest. I am now following basketball without watching any of the sport at all, and just checking the scores. It feels more like an obligation. But NBA, I just don’t how to quit you.
