Each NBA offseason, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr reads the identical e book, “The Inside Recreation of Tennis.” Written by Timothy Gallwey, the e book appears to be like on the psychological side of the game and the connection between the thoughts and physique. Kerr’s mentor, Chip Engelland, gave it to him to learn again when Kerr was enjoying on the Bulls, and now, the five-time NBA champion (and four-time championship-winning head coach) brings about 10 copies with him every time he’s touring in order that he can provide them to his personal gamers.
“In tennis you possibly can inform who has management of the purpose by the depth of the gamers,” Kerr informed the media again in 2022. “Should you’re pressuring (in basketball) and get them beginning their offense nicely above the three-point line you’re controlling the possession.”
As somebody who began enjoying tennis about 10 years in the past, and nonetheless continues to like the sport as we speak, I’m fairly conversant in the ins and outs of it. However after I had the chance to intern for SLAM in New York Metropolis, that’s after I was totally launched to the world of basketball. After researching completely different gamers, watching highlights and serving to set up older problems with SLAM, I began to assume extra about what the 2 sports activities may probably be taught from one another.
Let’s preserve it actual, skilled hoopers are simply as into different sports activities as they’re basketball, whether or not it’s golf and even tennis. Charlotte Hornets ahead Gordon Hayward used to play tennis as a child and as soon as mentioned that if basketball didn’t work out, he would’ve tried going professional in tennis. He nonetheless credit tennis for many of his psychological sport and says he nonetheless enjoys enjoying at residence in his free time.
In the meantime, tennis gamers like Frances Tiafoe even have a love for the sport. Tiafoe even performed within the 2023 NBA All-Star Superstar sport this 12 months.
There’s quite a bit that each video games have in widespread—from reputation to the truth that each basketball and tennis are world sports activities. However there’s additionally quite a bit they will be taught from one another.
SLAM let me have some enjoyable with it throughout my internship and assume creatively about what they could seem like.
Give tennis followers extra freedom at matches to make the expertise extra pleasant
While you’re at a tennis sport the foundations are fairly strict. If a stadium employee sees you standing, they’ll instantly run over to inform you to take your seat. If the umpire hears an excessive amount of speaking earlier than some extent, they’ll make an announcement for it to be quieter. When all these issues occur when you’re making an attempt to get pleasure from a match, it will probably make you’re feeling irritated and never need to be there as an alternative of enhancing the dwell sports activities expertise. On this case, tennis can look to the NBA and see how gamers feed off the group’s power. Why do you assume groups have an at residence benefit? If the tennis world eases up a bit and lets the viewers go as loopy as they please, the expertise for the viewer shall be on a special stage. It would even encourage extra individuals to attend.
What if tennis had two-way contracts and a G League?
The 2-way contact has been monumental for the NBA and its gamers. By giving the athletes the chance to bounce between two golf equipment, it permits them the prospect to adapt to professional ball somewhat than simply being dropped in and anticipating to supply from Day 1. Tennis ought to strive an idea like this, particularly since it may be exhausting for an up-and-coming participant to interrupt by way of whereas enjoying in opposition to the very best. With out excessive rankings, they find yourself enjoying the highest seeds and dropping straight away.
If there have been some kind of starter league the place they might play earlier than, or perhaps a two-way sort of contract, that could possibly be far more useful for a participant’s profession.
Tennis wants a set season and a championship
With no set season just like the NBA, a tennis “season” begins to really feel countless. There’s a brand new event each two weeks or so, and on the finish of November, they get about 5 weeks off earlier than it simply restarts. Whereas the NBA has now grow to be a year-round sport by way of protection, there’s an ebb and circulation to the season with the playoffs being probably the most thrilling time to conclude the season.
Maybe tennis ought to look to the PGA by way of a playoff and championship mannequin exterior of the majors so as to add to the storytelling and drama of competing for a title every year.
The NBA may benefit from putting in the Hawk-Eye laptop imaginative and prescient system to make calls
Prior to now few years tennis has put in a digicam system that makes all of the calls precise. It’s modified the sport. If basketball have been to put in this kind of expertise it may save not solely time, however any confusion/skepticism on sure calls. Whether or not it’s for fouls or who hit it out of bounds, this is also extremely useful for the refs.
Tennis ought to have an All-Star Weekend
NBA All-Star Weekend is when the League’s finest gamers come collectively and compete in video games and expertise competitions. Tennis desperately wants one thing like this, and it could definitely draw some much-needed consideration for the game’s up-and-coming stars. From the abilities competitors to legends enjoying doubles (or pickleball as we simply noticed in Florida), having enjoyable with the sport and placing particular person rivalries apart for a weekend would assist propel the game ahead.
Basketball ought to have extra males’s and girls’s overlap at occasions
In all tennis tournaments there’s a males’s and a ladies’s draw occurring on the similar time. Meaning the sport’s greatest stars, no matter gender, are multi function place. Tennis is ready to incorporate males’s, ladies’s, doubles, juniors, and even wheelchairs all in the identical event. So why can’t we see that in basketball? May the NBA season overlap with the WNBA season and have extra crossover sort of occasions? We’ve seen it slightly throughout NBA All-Star Weekend by way of the years, however in additional of an exhibition vs. aggressive format.
Tennis stars want to have interaction the group extra
NBA gamers like Jayson Tatum will hit a loopy shot or make an ideal play after which interact with the group. The viewers lives for that, and that feeling between gamers and followers makes the sport much more thrilling. Tennis doesn’t have that as a lot as a result of the gamers have a tendency to remain locked in (positive, they could yell for a second after successful an enormous level, but it surely’s simply not the identical). It’s no shock that tickets to Nick Kyrgios’ matches promote greater than any prime participant, and it’s time for the remainder of the tour to faucet into that very same power.
Permit tennis followers to cheer and yell throughout factors
Think about a silent NBA sport. Not the identical, proper? In tennis, you possibly can hear a pin drop all through the sector whereas some extent is being performed, and followers are instantly shushed in the event that they begin to yell throughout factors. Whereas the silence might generally make the purpose extra intense, it’s about time we begin letting the followers get extra into the sport.
Let tennis followers stroll to their seats at any second through the match
Tennis solely permits individuals to stroll to their seats on a change over, which is each odd-numbered sport. Should you run to the toilet or go to seize a drink and get again as they restart, you can be ready to get in for over 10 minutes (and nobody needs to try this). Whereas you will have to attend a second should you’re sitting courtside at an NBA sport, you possibly can stroll to your seats at any given second, which inspires followers to really feel like each sport is really an expertise.
Discover methods to get the following era of followers extra into tennis
How can we make tennis extra thrilling and get the following era to like the game simply as a lot as the remainder of us do? Let’s look to the NBA. By advertising marquee matchups and following the sport’s greatest stars from highschool to varsity to the League, gamers are constructing a fanbase earlier than they ever step on an NBA courtroom. By unifying youth tennis and with extra constant storytelling, the hype will match the expertise by the point they take middle courtroom at their first main.
Photographs by way of Getty Photographs.
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