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Monday, January 15, 2007
Still waiting for basketball explosion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He blogs about statewide preps, whether you like it or not.
“Atlanta is ripe to explode on the national basketball scene,” the promo for the PrimeTime Shootout touts. I’m not exactly sure what that means.
Is that talking about talent? If so, Atlanta isn’t ripe to explode. The explosion has already happened. If you want to see a little of the fallout, the PrimeTime is one place to look on Saturday.
Colleges across the country know about the A-T-L when it comes to basketball. ESPN has discovered it, too. It wasn’t long ago that Southwest Atlanta Christian vs. Landmark Christian, two metro teams, was a game featured on the national network.
It wasn’t long ago that Dwight Howard was tabbed the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, straight out of high school. It was earlier this season that Norcross held its own with national powerhouse Oak Hill Academy before falling short, a game that also played on national TV.
Though the PrimeTime doesn’t feature female players, I defy anybody to find a national stage on which Collins Hill’s Maya Moore or St. Pius’ Kelley Cain can’t hold their own — and maybe some of yours, too.
So, talent-wise, the Atlanta area takes a back seat to nobody. Everything else about the Atlanta and the national basketball scene may have some catching up to do, though.
The Georgia High School Association still is looking for a place to play the Class AAAAA North quarterfinals. That’s a venue problem — and one that would never ever happen if we were talking football.
The PrimeTime Shootout was originally supposed to be at Georgia Tech. It has downgraded to Norcross — the result of a venue problem that flies in the face of that same promo which also mentioned “bright lights, big cities, major stadiums.” Norcross is a major player in the state basketball scene, but it doesn’t play in a major stadium.
To say Atlanta is ripe to explode in the fan sense is wishful thinking in some marketing genius’ mind. This is football territory and, unless there’s an immediate mass migration from Indiana and Kentucky, football territory will it be for a long time to come.
Some blame a lack of media coverage for basketball not being more popular — which is only backward thinking. Media coverage does not build interest in a sport; it responds to the interest already there.
People have been talking about soccer becoming the next great sport here for the last 30 years. If only we could get more media coverage, they say.
To twist a line from “Field of Dreams:” If you build it, it will come. For whatever reasons you choose, basketball isn’t rooted in Southern culture. When it is, only then will that explosion come.
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