In defense of NBA defense

An unedited testimonial by Neil.

- i used to be on the college side of this argument, but in the last few years i've seen the light. i think the biggest issue here is the talent gap between college and the pros-- nobody doubts that it exists, but just about everyone hugely underestimates the magnitude. its easy to see lebron/kobe/chris paul take over a game and say "look how easy that basket was, they're not even trying to d him up" but the truth is, those guys are that good. parity on the college level makes it such that hustle/intensity can take advantage of offensive inadequacy, often to the point where it can decide a game. so yes, to some extent you might see college players look like they're playing harder on d, but only because the likelihood that it will force mistakes by the opposition is that much higher. i think another big factor here is the lack of meaningful defensive stats (which is an even bigger problem in baseball, led to the rise of sabermetrics). while steals might look good in the stat column, they don't mean all that much-- if you grab 3 steals in a quarter its great, but if u give up 4 baskets in that quarter trying to jump passing lanes, are you really helping your team? good defense often results in little more than adding a degree of difficulty to your opponents shot, and in the nba, a lot of guys are so good that most of the time it won't matter-- they'll score anyway, and the average fan won't realize how tough a shot they made. but if you don't make that shot tough, kobe will shoot 75% from the field.