Originally posted on 05/17/2014:

if kenz is right...this (set 2) is the "make it look good" set...

if you want to play that angle, errani 2-1 is now 2.75ish

as to the ubiquity of all manner of non-textbook/un-"professional" behavior, look at the book Freakonomics...proves that it's commonplace, not just among atheletes (great early chapter on Sumo-wrestling), but teachers, real-estate agents etc. etc...all kinds of motivations/reasons/rationalizations/excuses why people, even (especially??) the rich (who we think need not resort to it) constantly bend the rules--while propogating the myth that the ethics of their profession mean they would NEVER do so...

sports used to be all about fair competion (you know...what the word "sport" means)...now it's increasingly marketed AND produced as part of the "entertainment" industry...

nowhere is this more apparent than in NBA where, as HBJ pointed out--teams can't be trying to win "tooth and nail" if they turn on/mostly off (going into "razzle dazzle"=skill-exhibition mode) something they'd constantly be attending to...defence...if winning/competition REALLY was the highest priority. No, it's obvious that there's a collective responsibility of the league to "entertain" us, to keep us lapping up the full spectrum of their "product". So they actively cultivate "story arcs" and "good guy/bad guy" angles are constantly being doled out to/thru the media.

But NBA goes way beyond this in annoyance...and here it's joined with that other most-American of sports, NFL...to become increasingly "contentious/disputational/knit-picky", increasingly reliant on the video-review of the game in progress...sacrificing all natural "flow" that is still enjoyed in hockey/rugby/soccer...and replacing it with an annoying succession of play stoppages, ostensibly to "ensure we get the call right" (with the video review)...but also just to have a television commercial...

oh yeah...the knit-picky/contentious/legalistic nature of it all is magnified constantly with "new rules" (always with some apparently-positive motivation to "protect the players") that almost never accomplish the stated objective, but ALWAYS make it harder to officiate...and the games are hard enough to officiate already (the line between an "offensive foul"=charge/"defensive foul"/"no whistle" ON THE SAME PLAY in basketball is extremely fine...and, in "foot"ball, the continually evolving rules of what constitutes "pass interference" would overwhelm a law professor).

Marillion, i remember you saying once how in soccer, "playing up to the referees" for cards/penalties is ruining the game (and i agree)...in American team sports (especially basketball and football...but the damn "video review" is starting to ADD, not decrease controversy into baseball itself) it's the whole "sports industry...including the media presentation of it" is increasingly "playing up to society" to "entertain" it--with sport skill, yes, but increasingly with contrived controversy...to keep backers and bettors bitching and bickering (while buying more tickets) while the entertainers and producers laugh all the way to the bank.