In A World of Sports

Well I’m back…hopefully on a semi-permanent basis…I haven’t posted in so long because I feel like I haven’t had the time but really I realised that it was a lame excuse for laziness. So I’m back with my first blog in a while….

 First of all I have to get this off my chest about the NHL…What kind of Mickey Mouse operation are you people trying to run?  I am a huge hockey fan, arguably the biggest fan in either hemisphere, and I’ve frankly grown disinterested in the playoffs because well, right now there aren’t any playoffs.  Sure I’m going to get right back into it this Saturday with Game 1, but how many other people will?  Any momentum you had from the first 3 rounds with American audiences, the only audience Mr. Bettman cares about by the way, is now gone.  Few people in America care about a sport that takes place on ice come June.  What is accomplished by taking almost a full week off between series other than the loss of fan interest?  The NBA will start the next round while the previous round is still going, which is maybe a bit much but they have the right idea in keeping interest high, and keeping the excitement of the playoffs relevant and constant.  I can only read so many stories about Johan Franzen’s status before I start to grow bored.

 It is the Lost syndrome.  You take something off the air for too long of a period of time and people lose interest.  We have a ridiculously short attention span in this world of super-fast everything (food, electronics, information, women, and steroid-infused athletes just to name a few).  Take my lack of blog writing for example.  I don’t even expect this to be read by my close friends because why should they care to look at my site, they have probably lost any interest…damn, what a horrible realisation to have while I write this.  But that’s what the NHL is effectively doing by keeping the teams off the ice for almost a full week.  I know it is a tough grind, and their bodies are worn out and damaged, but for the sake of the game, cut it to a few days.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a sloppy game 1 despite the skill level of both teams simply because being out of a game situation for so long hurts your timing.  No amount of practise and preparation compares to the speed and intensity of a game, in any sport.  The Finals should have started no later than Thursday. 

 Shame on “Hockeytown”…Detroit has had many, many empty seats throughout the playoffs and for an original six franchise with so much history and great success that is terrible.  It is a tough building to play in only because of the team, not the fans.  I daresay Detroit fans are as bad as Toronto fans.  Ouch, take that Detroit!

 The Celtics will not win a title this year.  There is just no way.  And the sad thing is this is their best chance of doing it with this current group.  First of all they lost at home to Detroit last night essentially spelling their doom (since they can’t win on the road) but I can watch this team win and I still have no confidence in them.  Why?  Because their best player refuses to take over like he used to and they will be out-coached if not by Flip and the Pistons, then they will be by The Lakers or The Spurs, whoever comes out of the West.  Boston can’t win a title based purely on hustle plays and heart, that doesn’t happen these days.  They got past Cleveland only because Pierce had the game of his career in game 7 and The Cavs have an arguably equally bad coach in Mike Brown who must thank every God known to humankind that he has Lebron James on his team each night.  This Boston team might make the finals, though I suspect Detroit has it now with a split through 2, but they are not title bound.  Unless Garnett decides to be a force like the good old days when he was alone in Minnesota.  Look at his lines on those teams, and you’ll see what I mean.  Rivers can’t coach and away from the hometown love of The Garden which fuels the team to make the hustle plays that have gotten them this far, they are over and done with.  And the worst part is The Celtics secretly know this…they don’t help each other up nearly as enthusiastically and they allow opponents to score after the play on their basket more and more frequently.

Another note on the Celtics, but I don’t think Ray Allen is having fun.  Just watch him during the pregame introductions and you can see that he either doesn’t like the team that much, or he is doing the best, most subtle and longest-running Kobe impression I have ever seen.  He is doing just enough to make it look like he is a good team-guy but he doesn’t go out of his way.  I think it’s because he knows it’s not a Big 3 anymore, it never should have been, and everyone knows it. It’s more like The Sometimes Big 2, with contributions by Rajon Rondo, Eddie House, Kendrick Perkins and special thanks to Ray Allen.

One more thing….”It is what it is” is by far the biggest phrase in sports these days.  It surpasses any of the terms-of-the-year from any recent NBA drafts (every year it’s a new one) and even John Madden’s “now here’s a guy…”.  I feel like any time I read an article with a player being interviewed and a tougher questions comes up that is his response: “It is what it is”.  I don’t know if this is a sports-wide inside joke or if I’m just noticing it more since McNamee made that phrase famous in the whole joke steroid hearing.  I can’t believe there hasn’t been more written about this.

 Well that’s all for right now…I hope I get back into writing blogs because I have had so much on my mind that it was killing me but I am way too lazy to keep up with all that is happening in sports (well outside of hockey which has nothing going on unless you count the constant buzz in Toronto surrounding The Leafs and their ridiculous search for the next GM…but that is a story for another day).