Things to Expect when Watching a Game with a Casual Fan

[bdonovan]

1. Barking at people who miss free throws

This fan assumes free throws are the true test of basketball greatness. While FT's matter, they are All-Important to the Casual Fan.

2. Acting unimpressed by great plays

The casual fan doesn't know what's difficult to do, and what's not. So they act unimpressed by it all, as if this suggests they are a true "expert" not easily impressed.

3. Comparing everyone to Jordan

This depends on the age of the person you're watching with. But they will often say things like "Jordan could do it better" or "Kobe could do it better".

4. Call everything a travel

Everything is a travel to the casual fan, trying to show their sophistication but unable to comprehend the idea of a gather step.

5. Nothing's a foul

The casual fan doesn't really know what's a foul or not. But to posture as tough, they claim every foul is actually not a foul and the 6'8" 250 lb players are "soft" for thinking they deserve a foul for getting shoved to the ground.


Any others you've seen?

I enjoy watching the game by myself in most cases.

[highwhey]

acting like a player is great bc they're having a good game but their body of work is complete garbage aka the bradley beals of the world.

being in awe of cheap tricks like draining 3s from the logo but they can't play a lick of defense and are in fact a liability in that and other important aspects that are conducive to winning...shit, i could have just named steph curry and saved myself a lot of words.

[Kblaze8855]

The reason for defining the gather step in the NBA was to get out of calling traveling. It just looked bad with the referees ignoring dozens of blatant travels so they added language so you couldn’t say it was traveling anymore. It’s still traveling in the extreme vast majority of basketball ever played and the basketball played right now. Most basketball is not played anywhere with a gather step rule. Society has just decided To adopt nba rules that make the game easier while ignoring NBA rules that would make it more difficult.

that said, I could see it coming up if you’re referring to older fans who have a casual relationship with the modern game. 30 or 40 years of being called for something and suddenly seeing everyone do it without repercussion tends to get them vocal.

they tend to be real fans of basketball, but perhaps not the biggest fans of the NBA anymore.

[SATAN]

"All they do is shoot threes"

"Players should be loyal to their teams!" - It's almost always Jordan and Kobe stans who say this. I mean, yeah. But nobody in their right mind stays in a working environment they are unhappy in and know it's time for a change.

"NBA is just like WWF" - pretty sure tpols believes this in a literal sense...

[bdonovan]

acting like a player is great bc they're having a good game but their body of work is complete garbage aka the bradley beals of the world.

Can relate to that. And asking "How come I've never heard of [mediocre player] before??!". They also do the opposite, a good player making a single mistake, and saying "This person shouldn't be in the league" / "Should retire" etc.



being in awe of cheap tricks like draining 3s from the logo but they can't play a lick of defense and are in fact a liability in that and other important aspects that are conducive to winning

Entertainment bias. Stuff's that's obvious they process and overvalue. Sadly, seemingly everyone in the game has that bias- including NBA players themselves.

[bdonovan]

"All they do is shoot threes"

LOL. True test of someone who hasn't watched the NBA evolve over the last decade.

[bdonovan]

The reason for defining the gather step in the NBA was to get out of calling traveling. It just looked bad with the referees ignoring dozens of blatant travels so they added language so you couldn’t say it was traveling anymore. It’s still traveling in the extreme vast majority of basketball ever played and the basketball played right now. Most basketball is not played anywhere with a gather step rule. Society has just decided To adopt nba rules that make the game easier while ignoring NBA rules that would make it more difficult.

My understanding of the Gather is that the player has to have full control of the ball before the dribble has ended. From that point, they can take two steps. Often when dribbling you are moving your feet, so you are still moving your feet when the ball is bouncing up from the floor into your hands. The Gather is complete when you have enough control over the ball to shoot or pass.

What many assume is that what appears to be the first step after picking up the dribble is the first step, and you have just one more step. Often players can take a big step on the gather and it seems then if they take 2 more, it's a travel. It's not.

You're right about the recency of the change and people who watched a while ago could be confused about it. To my recollection, the gather rule always existed, it was just never defined. The differences today are a) it's defined in the NBA rules, b) players exploit the rule by dribbling out in front of themselves, and taking a large gather step. Which makes the additional two steps taken "seem" like a travel to some.

[Overdrive]

Calling everyone casual, because being able to detect offball screens gives them delusions of grandeur.

[Charlie Sheen]

1. Barking at people who miss free throws

This fan assumes free throws are the true test of basketball greatness. While FT's matter, they are All-Important to the Casual Fan.

2. Acting unimpressed by great plays

The casual fan doesn't know what's difficult to do, and what's not. So they act unimpressed by it all, as if this suggests they are a true "expert" not easily impressed.

3. Comparing everyone to Jordan

This depends on the age of the person you're watching with. But they will often say things like "Jordan could do it better" or "Kobe could do it better".

4. Call everything a travel

Everything is a travel to the casual fan, trying to show their sophistication but unable to comprehend the idea of a gather step.

5. Nothing's a foul

The casual fan doesn't really know what's a foul or not. But to posture as tough, they claim every foul is actually not a foul and the 6'8" 250 lb players are "soft" for thinking they deserve a foul for getting shoved to the ground.


Any others you've seen?

I enjoy watching the game by myself in most cases.

I am pretty sure everyone else enjoys you watching the game alone as well, Save that shit for reddit and stop ruining another's good time trying to educate them.

If this was intended as a lighthearted thread... my mistake :lol

[FKAri]

The chad casual fan vs the nerd hardcore fan

[FultzNationRISE]

Ive noticed an extremely strong correlation between putting disrespect on Lebron’s name, and being a hyper-clueless casual.

[imdaman99]

When someone ISOs every play, they are great basketball players. I can't tell you how many people worship Melo here in the area. Was he good? Of course. Is Luka great? Of course. But they don't play team basketball. Yekh, I'm beginning to sound like 3ball

[3ba11]

You guys are all casuals because you never never played against any NBA players at a college level or higher

Most people on here are nerds that never played and didn't even like basketball until around 2009 when a bunch of math geeks tried to solve the game with numbers, aka PER, etc

Or they started watching around 2015 when Curry's 3ball era simplified things and made the game seem playable for the ordinary person

Facts