Arvin Alaigh

I’m following the NBA Finals thousands of miles from midtown Manhattan. In my North London flat, I set the alarm for 1.20 a.m. on game nights, just in time for tip-off, and watch on my laptop. I inherited my fandom from my father. When he landed in Brooklyn as a teenager, nearly fifty years ago, rooting for the Knicks was one of the ways he became American. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a fan. Knicks stars were my earliest childhood heroes; their rivals, including the Spurs, the first targets of my disdain.

Professional leagues are sprawling multinational corporations grossing tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, employing tens of thousands of workers and serving hundreds of millions of consumers. But the sports media shrink professional sport, in all its material totality, to a mere game.