I would like to address the theory that is "home court advantage." It seems that in athletics, those involved are looking for anything--legal or otherwise--to give them that edge in competition. Home court advantage has been around as long as the sports they support, but I have a few questions about some of the theorems and corollaries (yes, I'm a math nerd) that stem from it...
Look, I can get with the idea that playing in front of your own team's fans can give one an added boost of energy. Who doesn't get excited when the home team is on a run then there's a dagger three or thunderous dunk that sends the place into a frenzy? I mean, despite the fact that it isn't really "home court" most of the time, since few players are from the same area that they play professionally or collegiately. For example, by my count, Wally Sczerbiak and Lebron are the only two people from Ohio that play for the Cavs. How is it that even with a midseason trade, those new players immediately earn the benefits of home court advantage? When Cleveland made that trade with the Bulls, the two teams played twice in the following couple of weeks. So does that mean that Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden, all of a sudden, forgot how to play in Cleveland? Did Joe Smith immediately earn the supposed ratings boost that comes with home court? Hmm...
Basketball is different from other sports in the sense that there aren't different alterations to each arena. Football stadiums have different playing surfaces, wind gusts, and climates; so it's understandable that visiting teams not used to them would have difficulty playing there. In baseball, a fly ball to left behaves differently in Fenway Park than it does in PNC Park; plus, there are different surfaces there as well. Basketball is played indoors, so there's no threat of weather (people in Georgia may disagree); and the dimensions of the court and rim never change. There's no reason that a basketball player plays that horribly most times they're in away games. Some would say that 15,000+ booing fans would disturb anyone's energy, but I disagree. If they're being disrespectful, then I can sort of understand being distracted. Anything that attacks a player's personal life is definitely out of bounds. However, I maintain that if an opposing player is being booed, then he is doing something productive on the court. Granted, I've never been in any "big games," but this notion that it's "tough to play on the road" is ridiculous to me; and I have a theory on why it's so prevalent...
The second round of this year's playoffs has lent more ammunition to theory of home court. As I said, the home teams should play better when they're in front of their own fans because there is a certain comfort that comes with thousands people cheering for you. However, road teams should not perform drastically poorer than they do at their own venues. I blame the decades of coaches and analysts that continuously drill into players' heads that, "winning on the road is difficult." To me, it sounds like the people that put stock into this belief are looking for built-in excuses just in case things don't go well on the road. Current head coaching candidate and awesome analyst Mark Jackson made a good point. He said that the players and coaches that believe in this idea are weak-minded. Again, the rim is ten feet high in all arenas; and the dimensions are still 94 x 50 feet. It's all mental.
Players and coaches should never let anything mental bother them, especially something they cannot control. It's not like they can control the fans--that's the only way fans can have an impact on the game. This is probably another reason why I didn't end up a big-time coach, because I would remove any player on my team that subscribed to this theory. NBA/college players/coaches, get some mental toughness...and quickly.
Peace.
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