There is a fundamental difference in the kind of players the leagues have. The NBA is a largely inner city urban American crowd. These players often grew up in the "concrete jungle" and learned that they have to do whatever they can to get as much money for themselves as they can.
The NHL is largely composed of Canadians, Europeans and people from northern US states (the ones that voted for John Kerry and Sarah Palin). Hockey is a relatively expensive sport to play (compared to basketball). One must be able to afford much more equipment plus ice time to develop. Hockey is a middle class game. Hockey is established in the more socialist parts of the world where central bargaining unions are commonplace. Many NHL players have parents who were in unions and directly saw the benefits they brought to their families. Hockey players are sticking together.
A racial issue is raised when basketball players, made up mostly of African Americans, are called "thugs" and yet hockey players, more than 90% caucassians, are not despite their game being more physicall and violent.
The Oblivious
If you live in New Orleans, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Orlando or Cleveland, you are blissfully unaware of how unlucky you are. You have the NBA and you never have had the NHL, and so you live under the impression that you're seeing something urgent and dramatic.
You have no idea that the hockey playoffs are to the basketball playoffs what the William Tell Overture is to Chopsticks.
It's not that the basketball games lack juice. It's just that the hockey games overflow with it. Short of war or a home invasion, nothing seems more imperative.
Injuries
Over the course of winning 16 games, players leave little chunks of themselves on the ice and basically get filleted in every game, and the most telling day is the one after elimination or total victory, when you find out that half the team is getting surgery. And quickly — the offseason is not that long. Shaquille O'Neal waited until training camp to get his toe fixed one year. That would be frowned upon, somewhat, in hockey.
Playoff Excitement
The other difference is when it gets to be 3-1. When Dallas trailed New Orleans, 3-1, Dirk Nowitzki said, "We didn't have a great offensive series, I guess," he said. Problem is, there was one game left. Guess who lost it?
The Dallas hockey team knows what time it is. The Stars led San Jose, 3-0, a juncture in which the typical NBA player starts calling hotels in Vegas. The Sharks skated right into the cannon of inevitability, won Game 4 in Dallas, won Game 5 at home after they trailed 2-0 after two periods, and took Game 6 into a fourth overtime before Brenden Morrow won it for Dallas.
Five times in this decade, and 20 times overall, a team has trailed a Stanley Cup series 1-3 and won it. It happens almost once every 10 times. But not in basketball. When Phoenix ousted the Lakers two years ago, it was only the eighth time an NBA team had been down 1-3 and won.
Then there's noise. Again, the difference is degree. At Mavericks games, the yahoo with the microphone actually yells "Defense" while play is going on. The sound of a disembodied voice while players are skating would bring angry glares from American hockey crowds and perhaps an armed rebellion in Canada, where the buildings throb with people power. Edmonton's crowd in the 2006 playoffs could have lit every lamp in the whole business district, thanks to lung-channeled energy.
Entertainment
In basketball, the game often gives way to the shtick. Between the first and second quarter — not even pre-game — of Game 2 of the New Orleans-San Antonio series, the Hornets' mascot leaped through a ring of fire for a dunk. He survived, unfortunately, but firemen had to use foam-belching extinguishers to put out the flames. It caused a 19-minute delay.
But then Will Smith and what seemed like a hundred dancers performed on the San Antonio court before Game 1 of the 2005 NBA Finals, and Spurs and Pistons were tripping on the cables as they attempted to loosen up for the actual game.
These were produced by something called "NBA Entertainment." The NHL has an entertainment division, too. It's called hockey.
A Filipino-Canadian Perspective
A couple of Caucassian guys who frequented a Filipino bar here in Edmonton were having a drink there. They probably wanted to watch an NHL game while drinking, a favorite past time among Canadians. Unfortunately for them, there was a Filipino hosted party and the TV was hooked on a Sixers' game. I was watching them and couldn't help but listen to their conversation. "Why do they like to watch basketball?", asked the first guy. "I don't know. Probably because they like to see a lot of scoring", the other guy responded.
And then, in a flash AI (as in Andre Igoudala) took off from beyond the free throw line and threw down one of the most thunderous dunks that I've seen since the days of the "human highlight" Dominique Wilkins. I saw the two guys stared at the TV with both their eyes and mouth wide open and seemingly embarassed to look at each other. There was a few minutes of silence. They probably have not seen anything like it before. As for me, it came as something unimpressive. Nate Robinson could have been more flashy.
As a teenager, my only acquaintance with hockey was in television. You remember the Far East Network (FEN) UHF channel 17 (I think) back in the Philippines? My wiz kid brother, with some help from myself, put up a special UHF antenna receiver at home back in the early '80s. In my love for basketball, I always find a way to skip some much needed sleep to watch Dr. J and the Sixers beat the hell out of Kareem and Magic of LA. Unfortunately, they did it only once (in '83) with Moses, Mo, Toney, and Bobby.
Anyway, while I was waiting around for NBA games one early morning or midnight, I chanced upon this game being played on ice. I was hooked for a while because Philadelphia had a team and they also played at the Spectrum. I particularly liked Ron Hextall, the Flyers' goalie. I watched this team breezed by everybody in the playoffs (I believe this was 1984). Then came the finals. They met the Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup. I asked myself then, "Why do they call themselves Oilers?", Where is Edmonton? There was no internet at that time and I did not have the appetite to investigate and I didn't care. All I wanted was for the Flyers to beat them. I was bitterly disappointed. Ron did not disappoint though but the Oilers just had too much fire power and they won in 7 games just because he did not allow them to win easily. That was the last hockey game I watched while in the Philippines. Little did I know that I will be re-acquainted with the Edmonton Oilers.
From then on, I probably watched all NBA Finals games. From Dr. J to Bird and Magic, Olajuwon and the Jordan era, The rise of the Spurs, the Pistons of Larry Brown, Shaq and Kobe and the latest stars & champions, I've seen and liked them all. But I now find the games so boring and unable to amplify my heart bit the way it used to. The slam dunk competition in the All Star weekend used to be a real treat. Now, it's not even worth watching at all. I just wait for the news.
In contrast, hockey games lack any room for the boring stuff. When I began to learn the rudiments of the game, I became even more hooked. Add to the fact that I am now able to watch a live game ten (10) minutes away from my house here in Edmonton, and the transformation becomes natural.
Other distinctions:
•A basketball player who is unselfish is singled out, because it's so unusual to see one. So is a hockey player who's selfish.
•Basketball awards are announced during the playoffs, like Bryant's MVP. Hockey awards are given out at a ceremony in Toronto after the playoffs, in Academy Award fashion. That's the time to recognize the individual stuff, not when a Cup is in play.
•The hockey playoffs have sudden-death overtime. The basketball playoffs don't. Nobody else does. It's like the last shot in a basketball game, except it can happen at any second. If it goes the full 20 minutes without resolution, they play another one. The crowd, having darted so quickly from launching pad to precipice, needs an intermission as desperately as the players.
•In basketball they talk bad about each other but rarely do anything about it. In hockey they say nice things, then try to staple each other to the boards and knock each other out.
Next: EVENTS, UNTOLD STORIES BEFORE THE PROCLAMATION OF MARTIAL LAW
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