There used to be a time when going to a basketball game was exciting - watching athletes hustling up and down the court, passing balls and scoring baskets was the excitement you were buying a ticket for and that was quite enough. Sadly these days are gone. It appears that now the basketball game has become a sideshow - at best while the real "excitement"is a non-stop barrage of high octane music at ear splitting levels, MCs screaming at the audience to jump up and down, wave towels, mug for the cameras and most of all make noise - clap clap clap clap your hands even when the game is already in motion. There is not one second of down time to catch your breath, think or focus on the actual game thanks to the overwhelming amount of visual stimulants or disruption on the giant monitors, constant announcements ,mascots running up and down the seats, t-shirt cannons being fired, fiery torches and fan contests on the floor of the arena. Given the numerous TV time outs and other interruptions the game itself actually rarely flows for more than a couple of minutes. Frequently you see the players stand around waiting for all the other "entertainers"to leave the floor. It's hard to figure how the professional athletes can stay focused on their task to win a game with all that ruckus going on and I'm sure the quality of the games is not being helped by all that "excitement". I guess that's what this is all about for the arena and the promoters - keeping up the energy for the fans, make everything seem more exciting especially to the younger fans in the arena, give the fans their monies' worth. But what about the people who buy tickets to see a sports event, not a three ring circus show? Actual sports fans coming to see a high level basketball game? I guess these fans are increasingly in the minority. Basketball like many other sports are now packaged as "entertainment"to keep the attention span challenged masses engaged. I still love to watch women's basketball but the presentation these days is torture!