I watched the San Antonio Spurs demolish the New York Knicks last night. I had been hearing about how bad the Knicks were, but last night was my first chance to actually see their futility first hand, or as first hand as a television set will allow. They were quite horrible. If you ever feel bad about your team, just have them play the Knicks. They'll make all your pain go away.

It's weird because I get the feeling that the Spurs have yet to play their best basketball of the season. If past seasons are any indication, they'll turn it on right before they get to the playoffs. Where they go from there, depends greatly on if they can keep up their momentum. But for the time being, I'd have to be pretty satisfied that they have the third best record in the league, even though Tim Duncan has yet to really catch fire. If he does, things could get quite scary in the West.

I'm always amazed at how different NBA coverage can be depending on who's showing the game. I've watched a pretty amount of games covered by both ABC and TNT. Both of those networks have fantastic coverage, with everything from the camera work to the sound equipment being top notch. But everything gets different when you watch a game through the local Fox Sports Southwest coverage. It's not quite as professional, so it makes for a completely different viewing experience.

Take the sound for example. TNT and ABC do a pretty good job at blocking out most of the crowd noise and any other sound that might take away from the game. But with more localized coverage, you can make out almost every word the coaches yell to their players, and a lot of the words coming from the audience.

I think professional football is the most gladiatorial of all professional sports, but an argument can be made about basketball. At least within regards to how the fans and players interact. With football, and baseball to a lesser extent, the stadiums are so large that the average fan sits far enough from the players that their impact isn't felt much.

Baseball's a little bit different because fans sit right and over the dugout and the first seats of most outfields bring you right within ear shot of the outfielders. And baseball games tend to be a little quieter on a more consistent basis.

But basketball takes fan/player interactions to a completely different level. Fans literally sit right behind both benches. When a player is shooting a free throw, they usually have to do so in front of thousands of fans yelling their name and waving whatever souvenir the owners decided to give out that evening. One could conceivably sit in the second tier of most NBA arenas and have what you're yelling legible to nearly everyone in attendance.

I guess it's ultimately not very important, but I still found it interesting nonetheless.

matt out