As you touched on, in hockey you get to see a lot more player character on the ice as part of the actual game. You get to see emotions boil over frequently, and you get to see player celebrations, scrums, fights, play stopping penalties, trash talking, etc…Yawn. OK I guess.
I watch sports for what happens during the game, not what gets said afterwards. But that's me I guess. And I never realized that Tom Brady was so entertaining and such a magnetic character off of the field, or Steph Curry for that matter. But maybe I'm just a bit jaded or something...
Yeah it would be nice if hockey had some more colorful personalities. But again who friggin cares if your happy with watching the sport itself. We see the passion on the ice and that's all that matters.
I like that hockey is a bigger multinational sport than the other 3 major leagues. It's cool to see all of the different cultures blend in together and make a team identity. Key word being team there. Hockey is and always be a sport that promotes and puts the emphasis on being a team guy ahead of being an individual.
But when you follow a team closely and see the unique personalities from the locker room shine through in a natural way - like they're not selling their own personal brand in every interview, or playing a character on camera - its even more captivating as a fan of regular people.
Not all of us are looking for a larger than life celebritiy to cheer for in the sport we love. The sport is good enough entertainment on its own. And there's enough tryhards in the digital world of self promotion that we live in, so I'm okay with it not being a thing in the NHL....
Hockey culture is also a lot more about having a team first attitude, because it’s a team game that requires team chemistry a lot more than it requires individual skill. The NBA can get away with the colourful self adulation and me first attitudes across the board, super teams, picking coaches, etc… but that kind of behaviour destroys hockey dressing rooms because winning the game is entirely dependent on the guys buying in and playing for each other.
You do see a similar behaviour from teams like SA and the raps in the NBA. There are me first teams and team first teams. I also don’t really see much difference in post game interviews between hockey and basketball in general. There seems to be a lot less off season gossip and team jumping by stars though. I find the NBA off season can be a little like TMZ to be honest.
Personally I have zero interest in arrogant sports players. Conor McGregor type self promotion is gross to me personally (much prefer GSP’s media style). I like hearing hockey guys defer to each other and the team play, because I think it mirrors character qualities that I appreciate more in society in general.
Let the leagues be different, we don’t need flamboyant self promotion, the NBA has that nailed. Hockey needs to continue to grow in terms of inclusiveness, amongst other things, but I don’t think we need the league to be more publicly self centred.
Ramble ramble hahaha!
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