Each NBA offseason, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr reads the identical ebook, “The Inside Recreation of Tennis.” Written by Timothy Gallwey, the ebook appears on the psychological facet 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 each 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 advised the media again in 2022. “In case you’re pressuring (in basketball) and get them beginning their offense effectively 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 right now, I’m fairly acquainted with the ins and outs of it. However once I had the chance to intern for SLAM in New York Metropolis, that’s once I was totally launched to the world of basketball. After researching totally different gamers, watching highlights and serving to arrange older problems with SLAM, I began to assume extra about what the 2 sports activities might probably be taught from one another.
Let’s hold 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 dwelling 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 Movie star sport this 12 months.
There’s so much that each video games have in widespread—from recognition to the truth that each basketball and tennis are world sports activities. However there’s additionally so much they’ll 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
If 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 a lot of these issues occur when you’re making an attempt to get pleasure from a match, it could make you are feeling aggravated and never need to be there as a substitute 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 dwelling benefit? If the tennis world eases up a bit and lets the viewers go as loopy as they please, the expertise for the viewer will probably be on a special stage. It would even encourage extra folks 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 relatively than simply being dropped in and anticipating to provide from Day 1. Tennis ought to attempt 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 perfect. With out excessive rankings, they find yourself enjoying the highest seeds and dropping instantly.
If there have been some form 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 out a set season just like the NBA, a tennis “season” begins to really feel limitless. 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 develop into a year-round sport when it comes to protection, there’s an ebb and circulate to the season with the playoffs being probably the most thrilling time to conclude the season.
Maybe tennis ought to look to the PGA when it comes to a playoff and championship mannequin outdoors of the majors so as to add to the storytelling and drama of competing for a title every year.
The NBA may gain advantage from putting in the Hawk-Eye laptop imaginative and prescient system to make calls
Up to now few years tennis has put in a digital camera system that makes all of the calls actual. It’s modified the sport. If basketball had been to put in this kind of know-how it might 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 may be 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 might actually draw some much-needed consideration for the game’s up-and-coming stars. From the talents 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 identical 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? Might 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 interact the group extra
NBA gamers like Jayson Tatum will hit a loopy shot or make an incredible 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 a giant level, nevertheless it’s simply not the identical). It’s no shock that tickets to Nick Kyrgios’ matches promote greater than any high participant, and it’s time for the remainder of the tour to faucet into that very same power.
Enable 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 world 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 typically 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 folks to stroll to their seats on a change over, which is each odd-numbered sport. In case you run to the toilet or go to seize a drink and get again as they restart, you possibly can be ready to get in for over 10 minutes (and nobody needs to try this). Whereas you might have to attend a second when 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 actually an expertise.
Discover methods to get the subsequent technology of followers extra into tennis
How will we make tennis extra thrilling and get the subsequent technology 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 school 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 heart courtroom at their first main.
Pictures by way of Getty Photographs.