The NBA’s Need for a Villain
Just like the plot in movies and television, narratives in sports are very important to keep the viewers’ interest high. The reason we love those plots is the same reason we as fans love sports, especially in today’s basketball world. It seems as though every single notable player in the history of the NBA has their own narrative. Jordan is untouchable, Kobe’s work ethic made him one of the greatest, and LeBron is chasing Jordan’s shadow. And these notable players have multiple narratives that are positive and negative. One common example (that I don’t necessarily agree with) is this: “Jordan is undefeated in the NBA Finals, but he never faced the more ‘talented’ teams LeBron had to face in the finals, making Jordan’s accomplishments worth less, or ‘easier’.” Now you can see how the perspectives of every single fan can get all jumbled and mixed up to create different narratives. There are national television shows every morning that are dedicated to debating these narratives. This concept can get overbearing, but there is no denying that they are important for the livelihood of the NBA. People get emotionally connected to these beliefs, and therefore they watch the games that end up changing or reaffirming those beliefs. And just like in movies and television, the NBA has heroes, but it is not always apparent if there is a villain every season. In the most polarizing time periods of the NBA, there has always been a consensus villain among the majority of fans. It always happens naturally, but it seems like in the past season or so, there has been a lack of consensus on who that is. Because this idea of a villain is missing, the NBA seems to lack some much needed drama, leading to people tuning out. This is the time where we roll out the red carpet for the 2021 Brooklyn Nets.
But first, we have to take a look at what exactly fits the archetype of an NBA villain. I think I was able to come up with a reasonable definition: “A team or player(s) that a majority of the league’s fans want to see fail because of their previous narratives.”The most common NBA villain that we’ve seen in the past decade was the “superteam”. This villain is a team that has an over abundance of talent, like LeBron’s Heat in 2011–14, or Kevin Durant and the Warriors in 2017–19. Fans collectively wanted these teams to lose because the fans believed that they made the league unfair, and that the teams were created because the superstar joined other stars to create their teams. LeBron James left his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in order to compete for an NBA title. Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder and long time co-star Russell Westbrook to join the team they blew a 3–1 lead to in the WCF: Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson’s Golden State Warriors, who were fresh off of an NBA record 73–9 regular season. These two teams broke the “balance” of the NBA, and they were the overwhelming favorite for the NBA title during those years, even though both teams never won every year they were together. You can even say Michael Jordan’s Bulls were the villain during the ’90s because of how dominant they were, winning 6 championships in that decade. They won three titles in a row…twice. I was not alive at that time, but if I was, the Bay Area sports fan in me would have probably rooted against them every year. What about the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons? These guys probably fit into the term “villain” almost quite literally. Led by Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer, this Pistons team would physically and mentally be villains in opposing NBA arenas. Fouling too hard to send a message and playing dirty in order to win were a few of their tactics that led to winning back-to-back NBA titles in 1989–90. Thomas’ conniving persona was always hidden with a big, shiny smile, and Laimbeer seemed to come into every game looking to knock the opponents’ teeth out. They were also the inventors of the “Jordan Rules”, a set of rules that they followed in order to beat Michael Jordan. One rule was that every time Jordan came through the middle of the lane on a drive, they would foul him in any way they could to discourage him from driving again. All of these teams got the most hate and were booed in every NBA arena that wasn’t theirs. But ironically, each of these teams had one of the best players in the league at the time. Like in almost any iteration of performance, whether it be acting, music, or sports, people are more than likely to find a way to hate the greats.
So, why does the NBA need a villain? Wouldn’t it just be better if every fan base just rooted for their own team equally because there’s more parity? Most would tell you the league is better to not have these teams and players that almost every fan wants to root against, but those people would be lying. Just like in every story, there needs to be a negative force, a conflict. Star Wars needed Darth Vader, Harry Potter needed Voldemort, The Karate Kid needed Johnny Lawrence and Cobra Kai. It’s just how the entertainment world works, it needs that balance. The NBA at its core, is entertainment. Sports is a source of entertainment for its viewers and fans that pay for tickets, jerseys, and other merchandise. The difference between sports and other forms of entertainment like movies and shows is that the stories are written by the players. They are not actors and actresses playing different characters and roles. They are the writers, directors, and actors of their platform. So why does the NBA need a villain? The league needs it for its audience, for their own engagement with the league. We as the fans want the drama, need the drama. All of the storylines we talk about on a daily basis is what drives us to keep our eyes on the product. Fans want to see if LeBron can win his fifth NBA title, one away from tying Michael Jordan. We want to know if this Brooklyn Nets team full of hired guns are really as good as they are advertised. Can Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons lead their franchise to their first Finals appearance since 2001 with Allen Iverson? These are the storylines and outcomes the fans wish to root for or against. We all love to watch our favorite teams and players, but there is something missing sometimes. That’s where the NBA villain comes into the picture. If you asked any big sports fan, what are the biggest rivalries in sports? You would get answers like Lakers-Celtics, Yankees-Red Sox, Real Madrid-FC Barcelona, etc. The Lakers-Celtics rivalry single handedly revived the popularity of the NBA. They went back and forth in the 1980’s with these colossal-like battles in the Finals for most of the decade, with all-time greats competing against each other. Neither one of them were necessarily the villain, but they were villains to the opposite fanbase. It was Bird vs. Magic, East vs. West, your classic sports rivalry, and it will go down as one of the best ever. The villain in today’s NBA is that one team that everyone can collectively root against. All of the drama, the media attention, and constant talking points are always revolving around this one team. The story of that particular NBA season always seems to fluctuate depending on the villain.
If we do not have that villain, it’s as if the season has no plot. There is no rising action leading to the climax. Having something everyone can agree to root against solves the problem of never having an actual reason to watch the game. It seems as though some groups of fans do not really watch basketball for the sake of enjoying the sport (or maybe I’m just on NBA Twitter too much). But, there are a majority of fans that would rather watch the games to root for certain outcomes and storylines than to watch for the fun of watching basketball. Fans love to prove others wrong. More importantly, fans want to be right. Underdog stories are always the perfect example of that. How many times have you rooted for a team because they are not expected to win a certain matchup? If they won, don’t you love rubbing it in the face of the team that were overwhelming favorites? When the Dallas Mavericks upset the Miami Heat in 2011, during LeBron’s first year there, the whole NBA fanbase rejoiced together in one song. It’s moments like that where the NBA can gain more popularity from. Having such a polarizing team or group of players also helps them make a lot of money. I mentioned earlier that in the past year or so, the consensus NBA villain was not alive. It showed in last year’s NBA Finals just half a year ago in the Orlando NBA Bubble. According to sportsmediawatch.com, the NBA Finals game that got the most viewers was Game 5 with 8.96M viewers. Now, if we compare that to the year before in 2019, the Finals game with the highest number of viewers was Game 6 with 18.76M viewers. Just in one season’s difference, the total viewership for a highly rated NBA Finals game decreased by more than half the previous year. But what exactly changed in 2020 that could have made people want to tune out? It’s not like the NBA decreased in popularity that much in just a year. Both years had talented teams in the Finals, and both years had injuries that kept certain stars from playing. The sad and disappointing truth of the disparity of viewership between those two NBA Finals is that no one cared enough about the 2020 NBA Finals. What do I mean by no one cared? There were no storylines in the matchup, or between the teams. The only notable storyline was if LeBron James could win his fourth NBA title, and if the Heat could be a Cinderella story and upset the favored Lakers. There was no deep underlying drama, no sense of rivalry, and there was not really a legitimate reason to root against either team. It was all based on the fan’s preference on who they wanted to win, and not an overarching story they needed to root for or against. If we look back at the 2019 Finals, there was one overarching theme that everyone wanted to see happen: beat the Warriors. The Golden State Warriors at the time were the NBA’s villain, and Kevin Durant was the Dr. Evil of the whole operation. The Warriors were on the brink of winning 3 titles in a row, something that has only been done 5 times, notably twice by Jordan’s Bulls in the ’90s, and once by the Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers from 2000–02. This Warriors team, after coming off of two straight NBA titles and seemingly having the most talented roster in NBA history , was the most hated team in the league at the time. Kevin Durant got the most backlash during his tenure on the Warriors. It got so bad that, even today, people won’t give him credit for winning back to back titles, even while being the best player on the court in both series. So in reality, it made the most sense for most NBA fans to root against them and support the Toronto Raptors. If we look at other years where there was a villain to root against, we’ll start to see the pattern that has been in place since the 1990s:
2017 Warriors vs. Cavaliers 4–1: Kevin Durant’s first year with the Warriors that broke the NBA. With almost the entire NBA fanbase that were not Warriors fans rooting against the Warriors, the viewership for Game 5, the closing game, was a whopping 24.53M.
2011 Mavericks vs. Heat 4–2: This year was about rooting against the Miami Heat, with LeBron James entering his first year with Wade and Bosh. In the closing game of Game 6, the total viewership was 23.88M. Everyone wanted to see the Heat lose the finals.
2010 Lakers vs. Celtics 4–3: The next little iteration of the LA vs. Boston rivalry, and the NBA fans were not disappointed at all. A 7-game, close and hard fought series that included the late Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol facing up against the Big 3 of Pierce, Garnett, and Rondo in Boston. Game 7 had a total viewership of 28.20M
2003 Spurs vs. Nets 4–2: Fresh off of the Lakers winning 3 titles in a row, we had a matchup with Tim Duncan’s Spurs and Jason Kidd’s Nets. There were not any notable storylines, just really good teams facing in the finals. The total viewership for the most watched game of Game 6 was 11.57M.
1998 Bulls vs. Jazz 4–2: Is this the apex of the NBA’s popularity? If you have not watched The Last Dance on Netflix, I highly recommend you do. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and the Bulls are on the brink of probably getting split up by Bull’s general manager Jerry Krouse. This is all happening as the Bulls go for their second 3-peat of the decade. The legendary ending of Game 6 with Jordan stealing the ball from Malone and hitting the step-back game winner for his last shot with the Bulls will always be historic. The total viewership for that game? 35.89 million.
I asked my Twitter followers (@obeyoblena if you want to follow for NBA takes and opinions) a poll about this year’s Brooklyn Nets. I asked if they were this year’s NBA villain. I gave them the choice of answering “Yes”, “No”, or “No villain this year”, and the whopping 26 people who were kind enough to help answer ended up voting 42.3% “No villain this year”. Now, I am not translating these 26 people’s opinions to the millions of NBA fans we have around the world, but I’d like to think that I can do some inductive reasoning to make a generalization: the generalization that most people probably do think that there is no NBA villain this year. I do have to point out that the poll was before they signed buyout free agent LaMarcus Aldridge, a former multiple time All-Star. But even with all of this, I am not seeing too much hate or backlash at the Nets for seemingly gathering all of this talent in just a matter of 2 months, certainly not as much hate as the Heat and Warriors got during their time. This is basically my pitch to the rest of the NBA fan base that this Brooklyn Nets team should be this year’s villain, and maybe for the next few seasons.
We all know the classic Harvey Dent line from The Dark Knight, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”. This line can really describe all of the polarizing players of the Nets. Let’s start with the main acquisition, James Harden. Harden, who was the golden child for the Rockets, did not have a…good-hearted ending in Houston. His leadership and play-style drove out his last two co-stars, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. There are multiple stories of Harden taking days off to party during the season, showing how disinterested and unengaged he was. Even with all of the shortcomings in the playoffs and poor performances he had in their elimination games, the Rockets organization gave him everything he wanted. The offense was tailored to his strengths, he was able to take any shot he wanted, and the accountability on the team only seemed to be missing when it came to his own actions. He leveraged this at the beginning of this season by not coming to training camp on time, and not being in contact with newly hired head coach, Stephen Silas. The worst part (which at this point could be anything he did in the past year) was that he was not at training camp because he was reportedly at rapper Lil Baby’s birthday party, during a time where the coronavirus pandemic was still making its rounds all over America. Have you ever missed the first couple days of the work week without telling your boss why you missed them? Harden told the media he was working with “his own personal trainers” in Atlanta instead of showing up to training camp. Oh and by the way, he seemed to be pretty out of shape and overweight during that time. But, we all know how the story ends, he ends up getting his final wish granted from the Rockets by getting traded to the Nets, one of the teams that were on his preferred trade destination list. The fact that he was able to leverage his own power over the organization to be in a situation that he wanted just does not sit right with me, and hopefully I’m not the only one.
Now what about Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the rest of the squad? Let’s dig in, shall we? Durant had his brief emotional, sympathetic moment with NBA fans at the end of the 2019 Finals, where he tore his achilles in Game 5. Tearing the achilles is known in the sports world as being one of, if not the worst injury that an athlete can go through. Before then, he was hated for pretty much 3 years straight for making the Warriors almost unbeatable during the time he was there. Once he leaves and goes to Brooklyn with co-star Kyrie Irving during the summer of 2019, it almost seems like he and Kyrie used his recovery period to change the outlook of the Nets. In one season alone, they gave Kenny Atkinson, a well respected head coach at the time, the boot for no apparent reason other than they probably did not want to play for him. Who replaced Atkinson, you ask? None other than Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash, who did not have any coaching experience. It was easy to see that Kevin Durant really wanted Nash to be the coach because of their previous relationship when they were both on the Warriors, where Nash would help him workout regularly. The hiring of Nash as head coach raised a lot of eyebrows in the NBA community. What made Nash more qualified than the other coaches who were not employed, but had way more years of experience? Durant and Irving simply wanted a coach that would probably give them the freedom to do whatever they wanted to do, without any sort of repercussions. Now during this time where the Nets signed former stars in Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge, Durant is now the head of another superteam, his second in three seasons. Irving on the other hand, has probably done the least to be hated. Being one of the most misunderstood, but polarizing stars in the NBA, there are some murmurs about how his time in Boston ended in 2019. Many Celtics fans (mostly Bill Simmons) would say that Kyrie quit on the team in their second round playoff matchup against the Bucks. Throughout that entire season, the team had chemistry and locker room issues. Kyrie was supposed to be their leader amongst all of the other young budding stars like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but instead he would constantly make strange and ambiguous comments to the media in his postgame press conferences. I say that he was “supposed” to be the leader of the team, because just 2 years before then he asked to be traded away from the Cavaliers to be the main guy on a team, and to get away from LeBron James’ shadow. Now you can probably see why these two guys could rub a lot of people the wrong way with how they have handled themselves in the past couple of years leading up to this season.
The Blake Griffin story is somewhat in the middle of Harden’s and the Durant-Irving duo’s. Griffin, who in just the past 12–18 months, seemed to be washed up. He was still a player that could play a good amount of minutes, but his days of being a very impactful player looked like they were over. There was a stat that was floating around this season before he came to the Nets, that he has not dunked the basketball since the 2019 season. For someone who is around 6'10, dunking the basketball does not take a lot of energy. Being that tall, you should be able to dunk with relative ease. Griffin looked as though he was playing with 70 year old knees on the court, missing a chunk of games, and collecting his $30M salary for the season. But once he was finally cleared to play for the Nets after being signed as a buyout free agent, guess what his first bucket was? If you guessed a dunk, good job! This guy who we all thought was washed and physically broken down on a bad team, comes out in his first game with this title-bound Nets team and dunks the basketball. Dunks are not worth more than any other basket, nor was the dunk all that spectacular, but it does say something about Griffin’s effort for the Pistons during the past year or so. Now, maybe it’s not too fair to Griffin to hate that he is now revitalized with a team that can realistically win the championship, as putting in maximum effort on his end makes the most sense. But, there are interesting and questionable quotes coming from this Nets team in the past week that can rub NBA fans the wrong way. After all of the talk about Griffin being “brought back to life” like a miracle was performed on him, he decided to respond to people calling the Nets out. One of the quotes he said was, “All I heard for two years was how bad I am”, as a response to fans being mad at Brooklyn for acquiring all this talent. Can you feel the blood boiling now?
For this NBA season to give life back into the drama of the league, they need to present this Nets team as that villain moving forward. It would also help if the Nets buckled down and accepted that the majority of NBA fans are probably going to hate them, leading them to embrace it. That is also something the Heat and Warriors did so well during their superteam years, embracing the villainous role. Nowadays, we have quotes like this from head coach Steve Nash, “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do: Not try to add to our roster and just sit pat? It’s not like we did anything illegal”. It is as if Nash is trying to deflect this superteam hate claim that the NBA fans have just started. I would argue that the hate should have started when Harden forced his way to the Nets, but that’s neither here nor there. It will be interesting to see how they handle it as it grows for the rest of the season. The interest to watch a certain game exponentially grows when there are storylines tied to a certain game, along with all of the notable players that are involved.
Every NBA season has its own unique feeling that is attached to it. How do we remember a certain year? 1998 was Jordan & the Bulls’ last year together dominating the league, 2016 was the 3–1 year where LeBron led the Cavaliers to win three straight games in the Finals to complete the greatest comeback in history. Every time a season ends, a new short story is added to the never ending collection that is the history of the NBA. Notable seasons were filled to the brim with storylines and talking points that the NBA community yearned to discuss every waking moment throughout the year. Is this going to be the season where we remember that the Nets were overloaded with NBA talent and ran through the league, or will it be lost with all the other forgotten NBA seasons? In order to get back to the once drama and passion-filled NBA fanbase, league’s fans need to band together and actively root against this Brooklyn Nets team. No matter if they win the title or never make it to the Finals, rooting against the success of this team will bring back the exhilaration and intensity of the NBA.
