Department of Sports Therapy, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel.
Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel.
PLoS One. 2022 May 18;17(5):e0266875. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266875. eCollection 2022.
The NBA has undergone formative changes since commissioner David Stern began his tenure. Stern has endeavored to make the NBA a consumer-friendly and marketable league by implementing sanctions on physical violence. This study takes a closer look at Stern's efforts by examining the interplay between two forms of violence in NBA basketball players on the court: "old fashioned" physical violence (PV) and symbolic violence (SV). Of the 117 NBA finals broadcast for twenty years from 1998 to 2018, a stratified random sample (36 games or 30.8%) of the violations and commentators' comments were coded, providing a wide perspective on forms of violence over time. The findings reveal that although the number of PV incidents decreased, SV increased starting in 2014, to the extent that SV incidents were more frequent than PV. A thematic analysis of the commentators' remarks associated with these incidents showed that they support and encourage PV, whereas SV tends to be perceived as harmless and therefore permissible to ignore. Unlike PV, SV is not perceived to be as worthy of media coverage. The relative lack of commentator interest is indicative of the lack of "glamour" of SV in the NBA league. It is suggested that since viewers of professional sports often emulate the players, the increase of SV within the NBA is likely to be mirrored in fans in their everyday lives and in amateur basketball players. Although the rise in SV causes fewer physical injuries in professional basketball players, it nevertheless can cause psychological harm.
自 NBA 总裁大卫·斯特恩上任以来，NBA 发生了重大变化。斯特恩通过对身体暴力行为实施制裁，努力使 NBA 成为一个对消费者友好和具有市场吸引力的联盟。本研究通过考察 NBA 篮球运动员在球场上的两种暴力形式（“老式”身体暴力（PV）和象征性暴力（SV））之间的相互作用，更深入地研究了斯特恩的努力。在对 1998 年至 2018 年 20 年间播出的 117 场 NBA 总决赛进行分层随机抽样（36 场比赛或 30.8%），对违规行为和评论员评论进行编码，为了解一段时间内暴力形式提供了广泛的视角。研究结果表明，尽管 PV 事件的数量有所减少，但从 2014 年开始，SV 有所增加，以至于 SV 事件比 PV 更为频繁。对与这些事件相关的评论员言论的主题分析表明，他们支持和鼓励 PV，而 SV 往往被视为无害，因此可以被忽视。与 PV 不同，SV 不被认为值得媒体报道。评论员缺乏兴趣表明，SV 在 NBA 联盟中缺乏“魅力”。有人认为，由于职业体育的观众经常模仿运动员，因此 NBA 内部 SV 的增加很可能会在他们的日常生活中和业余篮球运动员中得到反映。尽管 SV 的上升在职业篮球运动员中造成的身体伤害较少，但它仍然会造成心理伤害。
