Basketball thrills more than hockey

In response to Joe Garcia's March 27 Exponent letter on why ice hockey is better than basketball, I offer this rebuttal. I don't want to come off as an arrogant fool like Mr. Garcia, but I would like to welcome him to the great state of Indiana where we get Hoosier Hysteria over our beloved basketball. Now, I will tear apart Mr. Garcia's arguments on why ice hockey is superior to basketball.

Basketball is a very physical sport involving running, jumping, whatever it takes to win. Apparently, Mr. Garcia's idea of physical play is simply beating the life out of other players like barbarians. Oh, what's that, there is no goaltending in basketball. So what exactly, Mr. Garcia, do you call shot blocking, stealing the ball and asserting your presence in the way of the other players waving your arms so that they can't get off a shot. I would call it defense, basketball's very physically intense equivalent to goaltending. As for fast breaks and dunks, it still requires skill to overtake the defender. In basketball, as in hockey, every point must be earned through blood, sweat and tears. How else would so many basketball players get cuts, bruises and broken bones?

Basketball is very fun to watch; there's more cheering due to the excitement raised by every challenging basket. (This cheering, of course, excludes old people who just can't take all of the cheering and excitement so they should stay home and watch it on TV if they don't like it). Oh, by the way, you're darn right that basketball will continue to thrive at Purdue as a real man's sport. Amen for basketball!

Jason Godfrey
Freshman, School of Technology

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