The NBA All-Star game has just passed this weekend. For those who are not basketball fans, it is a game where the best of the basketball players from the NBA come together to play a game. These players were voted in to play this game by fans, which means they are popular players, and usually one of the best players in the league. The game is usually among the most watched basketball games as it is filled with star-studded players.
Afterall, the sports business is part of the entertainment industry, with sports teams earning from various sources of income. Fans are entertained in different ways, some simply love the sports, some keep track of the conflicts, some love the merchandise, some even monitor the personal lives of the sports celebrities. Even trading of players is part of the sports’ showbiz, with many dramas, negotiations, talks, and news covering it.
As someone who loves basketball overall, checking out the news from time to time; the NBA reminds me of our national politics.
It is competitive, of course. Teams compete with each other to win championships. Political parties compete with each other to win general elections.
Sometimes the officials and the management change the games’ rules and regulations to make the sports better. Politicians must keep amending laws and public policies to make the nation better.
Players and teams keep training and developing themselves to make themselves better and subsequently improve the quality of the sports. Political players do develop themselves too, but who knows whether it’s for the sake of the nation or for themselves.
Players were traded or players requested to be traded from teams to teams, sometimes for better wages, sometimes for the sake of winning championships, or sometimes to take up different challenges. There is one player that has won three championships, but all as a player of three different teams. Well, don’t you feel it’s the same here, politicians jumping from one party to another, for benefits, or to form a new government? Don’t you think that some politicians are the ministers despite the different political parties that rule the nation?
The difference here is, we know the sports industry is part of the entertainment industry. We know it wouldn’t harm us in any way. But the political scene is not, it is not supposed to be an entertainment for us. We have to take the political happenings seriously as it affects us in many ways.
At times, I really hope that the political players can learn more from the sport. It seems that they are doing more for the community and people compared to politicians. They train themselves and fight to make new records, they amend rules and regulations so that the game would be better and fairer.
In the All-Star game, despite different teams, all the basketball stars come together to promote a good sporting culture. Even in the NBA, there are times that they advocate for the right things such as equality and fairness.
Our national politics have been shrouded by uncertainties for too long, and yet it doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. The drama and happenings in politics are as exciting as in the sports, but more people are more interested in sports compared to politics. But of course, we do not hope that we have too many dramas in politics, but instead focusing on making the nation and community better.
I hope by using the analogy of the NBA, I can pass a message to those basketball fans in Malaysia that we have to know more about politics, as it is part and parcel of our lives.