We all love watching Stephen Curry cross people over, LeBron dunk on everyone in sight and the great show that the NBA players put on throughout the season and in the playoffs. They are the best of the best and they prove that day in and day out with their performances on the court. I am the first to say that I like the NBA, but if I had to choose between college basketball or the NBA to watch, I'm picking college basketball.
One reason I prefer college basketball over the NBA is because of how competitive it is. If you ever watch one of the top five teams play against an unranked team away from home, it could lead up to some very exciting finishes. Monster upsets, court-storming and great calls from great college basketball announcers like Dick Vitale or Jim Nantz makes college basketball great. In the NBA, you see some great finishes, but I don't see it being nearly as competitive as a good college basketball game. When the Warriors play the 76er's or some team near the bottom of the ranking, there isn't that much incentive to give it all you got. When I watch a bad college team play a highly ranked team, I see them giving it all they got and doing everything they've got, but in the NBA, I rarely see that ever.
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What I also love about college basketball is the environments and arenas. Allen Fieldhouse, Cameron Indoor, Rupp Arena, Dean Smith Center and the list goes on and on. Night in and night out, you get ruckus crowds that do everything they can to support their team. Who doesn't love seeing a sold out crowd cheering for their team? Shaking the building, loud chants and the spirit fingers are a great perk to college basketball. Something that you will rarely see in the NBA.
The big thing that makes college basketball the best way to watch basketball is March Madness. With everything from Selection Sunday to the championship game, it's the best part of the year. It's a month full of great upsets, buzzer beaters and nail-biter games throughout. You do everything to fill out a perfect bracket and you still never get close, and that is what makes it so special. It is so unpredictable and pressure-packed that it everyone loves to watch it. The NBA Playoffs are also great, especially the way they do a best-of-seven game series throughout, but I think it's better to watch a one-game series compared to seven. Sometimes a team that clearly played better than another doesn't win (*cough* Oklahoma City *cough*), which just isn't fair.
There you have it. One thing that shouldn't be taken from this is how bad the NBA is, because I truly like watching NBA basketball. It's great and right now it is in a really good place with the players that we have today and moving forward. But college basketball takes the basketball crown in my opinion. Better crowds and environments, overall competitiveness and March Madness makes college basketball just that much better than the NBA.
