Lots of times you see lists trying to determine if a sport qualifies as a sport. Is pool a sport, is golf a sport? A better question may be: is the game a sport or entertainment. Clearly World Wrestling Entertainment is entertainment, it says so in the name.
The NBA, well, it used to be as easy call. Sport. But the question is a little harder to answer now. In the attempt to market itself and make the NBA brand a worldwide attraction, stars, not teams, have become the main attraction. This means that the individual stars on a team dictate the game to a much larger degree.
Kobe Bryant was going to walk across the hall to the Clippers if the Lakers didn’t trade Shaquille O’Neal. This left the Lakers with a bad trade since their hand was forced. If they could have waited another six months to a year, they would have had many more options.
Baron Davis explained his unhappy career under Byron Scott by saying that Scott didn’t listen to him. The implication is that the New Orleans Hornets?? would have won just like Golden State winning now that Baron plays there because the coach, Mike Montgomery, apparently does listen to Davis. Whenever I get into a fight with someone and they complain, “You’re not listening to me!”, what they’re really saying is, “You’re not doing what I want you to do.”