Will lack of national discussion cause NBA, NHL playoffs to suffer?

It's the climax of the hockey and basketball seasons, but both have potential playoff visibility problems. Let me explain.

The NBA first -- as you know, basketball is the most individualized, celebrity-ized team game. Like movie stars, the best players are known by their first names: LeBron ... Kobe ... Dirk. Every basketball superstar wants to take his talents to a hot-dog, big-time market. Or at least marry a Kardashian.

So, for goodness sakes, why is San Antonio once again the best team, and what is the matter with the Spurs' perennial star, Tim Duncan? Who? Tim Duncan is not only not known just as Tim, he is not even known as Duncan. In fact, he is always called "Tim Duncan," to make sure we remember who he is.

Tim Duncan just doesn't get it. He is happy playing down there in San Antonio. He never tries to get his coach fired. He even likes his coach, Gregg Popovich, who everybody just calls "Pop." Pop doesn't get it either. He's been quietly coaching the Spurs since 1996, and even though he is coach of the year again, he doesn't think he is either a genius or a guru. Tim Duncan has himself been hiding in San Antonio since 1997, after he graduated from college with honors. He is so weird he never gets in the columns.

So it's really not even going to seem like the NBA if Tim Duncan and Pop lead San Antonio back to the championship. Of course, outside of the Greater Alamo area maybe nobody will even notice.

Now, that's the exact problem the whole, entire, complete National Hockey League has. This is because what we used to call "the sports world" is actually now "ESPN-world." And of all the major leagues, ESPN doesn't carry the NHL. As a consequence, the NHL is like a tree falling in the forest, because pretty much if a sport isn't on ESPN then it doesn't count as a sport. Poker became a sport when ESPN started showing it.

Angry hockey people even tabulate the few minutes ESPN deigns to mention the NHL. ESPN replies that hockey is not in the "national discussion." The NHL is just not like LeBron or Kobe or baby bumps or Mitt Romney's dog. In fact, to ESPN the NHL is rather like ... Tim Duncan. Hockey fans say that the NHL can't be in the national discussion unless ESPN discusses it, because in American sports today, that's how you get national. You get on ESPN. Look at it this way: ESPN to sports is like Fox, MSNBC, the Comedy Channel and MTV all in one.

ESPN might have a problem, though. The New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings may very well end up playing in the NHL finals. Is even ESPN bigger than LA and New York, together? Stay tuned.

Published May 23, 2012 | Modified May 23, 2012

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

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