Hockey and basketball have a lot in common. Both are played at the same time of year, have the same number of games in a season, same playoff format, are played 5 on 5, and are often played in the same arenas. Despite these similarities, basketball is much more popular among the younger generation than hockey. On Instagram, which is primarily used by younger people, the NBA has almost 13.5 times as many followers as the NHL. At school, I constantly hear classmates discussing basketball and have never heard Hockey mentioned once. Sports fans value four things in an entertaining game: competitiveness, talent, atmosphere, and exciting plays. I consistently watch both leagues and do not understand why people chose to watch basketball and not Hockey. Hockey is more entertaining than basketball due to its fans, the skill level and toughness of its players, and because it has more electrifying moments.

The first thing I noticed when I started watching hockey was the toughness of its players. They were slamming each other into the boards, fighting each other, taking pucks/sticks to the face, playing through injury, and giving full effort throughout the entire game. A month ago, NHL player TJ Oshie played an entire game with a broken hand. This level of toughness is unheard of in basketball. Many basketball players over the past couple of years have chosen to skip games and take rest days just because they feel like it (meanwhile people working 60 hours a week get fired when they don’t show up to work just because they don’t feel like it). Basketball players also hate contact. Most of the time when a player is barely touched by a defender they immediately go crying to the referees for a foul. In terms of toughness, they are the complete opposite of hockey players. Tough players make for a more entertaining sport. It’s fun watching people hit each other hard. It’s fun watching people fight. It’s fun when contact is allowed in a sport. Furthermore, toughness shows that hockey players are passionate about the sport and want to win. On the other hand, the laziness of basketball players shows that they don’t always want to play basketball. The passion shown by hockey players makes for a more competitive sport. Every sports fan in the world will tell you that they prefer competitive games.

People underestimate how difficult it is to play hockey. Basketball players do have a ton of skill, but they are simply not at the same level as hockey players. Basketball is played in tennis shoes, the ball is controlled directly by players’ hands, and no one is allowed to goaltend. Hockey players have to be perfect ice skaters, able to get to any place on the ice as quickly as if they were running. They have to control a small puck with a crooked stick and get it past a goaltender who is almost the same size as the goal all while knowing that a defender could hit them at any point in time. Despite all of these challenges, teams manage to score three to four goals a game on average. Hockey simply requires more talent and better athletic ability than basketball. Basketball fans often choose to watch a certain team because they want to watch a certain player on that team who has a lot of talent. If fans like watching talent, they should watch the sport that has more of it.

Part of the reason people enjoy watching basketball is its large amount of scoring. If both teams score around 110 points, that comes out to about 110 shots made. It’s a lot more than hockey’s 7. However, I think hockey’s small volume of scoring makes it more entertaining. It makes each individual goal more valuable than each individual shot made in basketball. Furthermore, it’s hard to predict when a goal will be scored in hockey, creating suspense. The lower scoring of hockey also causes more close games, which lead to more exciting plays. It’s impossible to have a buzzer beater or game winning score without a close game. Hockey has more of those than basketball because it has more close games. Basketball fans see Kawhi Leonard’s game 7 buzzer beater in 2019 as the most exciting play in basketball history. What they don’t realize is that hockey has plays like this all the time. Just last month, David Pastrnak scored an overtime goal in game 7 that caused the entire city of Boston to explode. Goals like this happen almost every year in hockey while basketball fans don’t expect another play like the Kawhi Leonard shot. The high amount of scoring in basketball makes it less exciting and suspenseful than hockey, making it less entertaining. 

The excitement that comes with each goal in hockey causes a great crowd reaction. My favorite example of this is a goal scored by the Edmonton Oilers last week. The entire sold out crowd was in the middle of singing Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer when a goal was scored and the crowd erupted. Basketball almost never sees a comparable crowd reaction since each individual score does not mean a lot. Hockey fans in general are also better than basketball fans. A lot of NBA fans are fans of the league, not any team. This makes for a dead atmosphere at a lot of basketball games since a lot of fans do not care who wins. On the other hand, hockey fans are passionate about a specific team. The passion creates a contagious energy from the fans at the game that comes out through the screen to fans. It creates a much better atmosphere than basketball that creates a more exciting game to watch.

As a person who consistently watches basketball and hockey, I have a hard time understanding why basketball is one of the most popular sports in America while hockey is hardly mentioned. Almost all of the entertainment influencing aspects favor hockey. Hockey games feature much more competitiveness, talent, exciting plays, and a better atmosphere than basketball. So why do people not like hockey? Because they don’t give it a chance. Since a lot of Americans watch basketball and talk about it on a consistent basis, others feel pressure to follow the game. Since few people watch and talk about hockey, it is often forgotten and ignored. If people give hockey a chance, America will have a new favorite winter/spring sport.