NBA can provide magical moments at any time

LeBron James seems to do something nearly every night that takes the breath away. Matt Slocum / AP Photo

Steve Dilbeck

They are paid way too much money. Are pampered and indulged and treated like royalty. Most never finished college, served their country or helped an old lady across the street.

So it could be easy to look at NBA players with a certain disdain, an understandable disconnect.

Yet do not give up on these amazing athletes or begrudge them their incredible talent. It says here they are the best athletes in the world.

Impossible to prove, certainly. Completely subjective, absolutely.

But the skill level required to be an elite basketball player is difficult to grasp. They need endurance, power, agility and quickness with hands and feet, and an uncanny talent to put a ball through a hoop 10 feet above the floor.

NBA players soar. The best seem to fly. Watching a Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant somehow hang in midair, time almost stopping, while changing the ball from hand to hand and then dunking, can never get old.

The NBA is the one game you can watch on almost any night and some player will do something that will have you rubbing your eyes in disbelief. “Did you see that? Did he really do that?”

Magic Johnson was a 6ft 9ins point guard who played with a court vision that seemed inhuman. LeBron James looks like a body builder who happens to have springs for legs and deft touch.

There is a reason why the NBA’s popularity is spreading, globally. It is a great, competitive game, filled with wondrous athletes.

And it is something to cherish, to recognise as truly special.

Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE