The Drought Ended for at Least One Team

The Golden State Warriors just won the NBA Finals; I’ve surprised myself the past several weeks by watching the NBA playoffs and enjoying actually sitting and watching the games again after a long hiatus. This was a good Final series mainly because it was hard to pick which team to pull for with long championship droughts for both teams; with no championships of any kind in Cleveland for 50 years they became my sentimental favorite.

The NBA has been virtually unwatchable for a long time. The former commissioner created street ball with refs and those guys were not very useful either.  Jordan made palming the ball acceptable the way he brought the ball up the floor; it would have been called traveling in the real OLD days, as in pre 1983. I think Kobe should send Mike a couple truckloads of champagne for getting the extra step allowed which helped him score probably 3 to 4,000 more points over his career. I watched Dr. J in his prime; he didn’t need that extra step. Stern oversaw an influx of too many young players not bothering to improve their skills and being more interested in making the Top Ten Plays on ESPN, thus becoming the standard fare the past couple of decades.  The past few years with Miami putting together their Big 3 then making 4 straight trips to the Finals and winning twice was unprecedented; the Lakers have tried that experiment twice and failed miserably both times. When it comes to the Finals, great teams win championships and that’s what the Finals this year was about.

It was fun to watch the way the Warriors moved the ball around; sometimes the ball didn’t touch the floor after the first pass.  Stephon Curry is just a fabulous player and one of the best shooters I have ever seen. Steve Kerr’s championship pedigree paid dividends while he coached his butt off. Even with the team he had he still had to use them right and he did.  This is a young solid team that should be in the conversation for at least another few years.

Cleveland just didn’t have enough left in the tank after going up 2-1; their energy level after that game just wasn’t there the last three games. The Cavs grit and scrappiness got them the lead in the series, but it wore them out. The last three games they had too many shots that hit the front of the rim and would just drop; a glaring sign their legs were approaching jello. Lebron James had to do too much and the other guys just didn’t step up after they won Game 3. Even with Tristen Thompson banging the boards like a boss they just didn’t have the horses.  Cleveland fans are left to wonder what might have been if Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving had been able to play the whole series.

If anyone had told me I would be watching the NBA Finals this year back when the season started I would have choked on my coffee from laughing.  I write the words “I enjoyed it” with more than a dash of incredulity. Only time can answer the question, Will I watch next season?

I Bet You Won't Finish Your Popcorn

This first weekend in May 2015 wields a double edged sword. The weekend that essentially started on Thursday could be either sports fan nirvana or the final debacle for a degenerate gambler.

The yearly talent crapshoot known as the NFL draft kicked off the weekend on Thursday. Teams have probed, poked and tested about 2,000 of the young men they see as the top college talent. All that evaluation is done in the hope they will find the next Peyton Manning and not the next Ryan Leaf. After a season that offered as much if not more coverage given to off the field issues than to the play on the field, the word “character” became the hacky sack of every broadcast.  I guess watching Jameis Winston throw the football makes everyone forget about the other stuff.  For every Tyrann Mathieu there are 5 Justin Blackmon’s it seems. Only time will tell if all the character questions had merit, though I will be surprised if more than 3 of the top picks in this draft play out their rookie contract.  The most popular bets available on the draft define insanity; you can bet on where any player will be drafted, who the first running back drafted is and which conference will have the most players drafted. I will bet that any players unfortunate enough to be drafted by those whoopee cushions known as the Redskins and Browns will come to camp stocked up on Prozac to cope with the insanity.

Saturday presents us with the most exciting two minutes in sports followed later by the richest fight in boxing history. The Kentucky Derby is the only “pre-game” that rivals the Super Bowl. At least with the Derby there are other races to watch instead of seventeen human interest stories about a player’s gardener’s dog’s barber. Well, all the pre derby stuff is worth watching just for the big crazy hats isn't it? The races yes, for the hats no, no it’s not.  It was unfortunate that California Chrome missed the Triple Crown last year since it was a neat story of a great little horse, though it only furthered the notion there will never be another Secretariat.  My pick, Carpe Diem, didn’t carpe enough, which is why I don’t bet on horse racing unless I happen to be at the track in Saratoga Springs. I hit the trifecta the last time I went though it sure wasn't enough to retire to St. Thomas.

I hope the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight lives up to the hype after waiting so long for it to happen. Apparently it is already the richest fight in boxing history and at $ 90.00 for pay-per-view in standard def I think I’ll stick with plain old Netflix.  I went to a pay-per-view event for Tyson- Spinks (I didn't buy the tickets) and that was over before I finished my popcorn.  I hope anyone that made the investment on this fight gets to finish theirs. These guys are both long in the tooth for boxers though I expect the fight to go the distance. I don’t see either being able to knock the other out, unless it’s happens to be of the Hollywood double knockout variety.

Behind these big three, the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing and into the second round. I’m going on a short limb and wagering these early rounds will have more drama than the finals in either league.  We can’t forget baseball still has over 135 games to go before their playoffs begin. That season seems so long because of the number of games, though time wise it’s really only longer than the NFL.  If you’re a fan of any or all of the sports action this weekend I wish you luck in having the time to finish your popcorn. For all you gamblers out there I hope you managed to hang on to enough gas money to get to you to work Monday. If not, I hope you have a good pair of shoes and a friendly looking thumb or maybe even some leftover popcorn.

Going Home Again

The big news on the sports pages the past few weeks is where is Lebron James going to sign. Finally the speculation ends and James announces he is going to sign with Cleveland again. Over the next few weeks the news will be predictions on how well Cleveland will do this year and what other free agents they can grab. Thank you David Stern for creating streetball with refs that promotes the idea of individual players being bigger than the game. I pretty much stopped watching the NBA about the same time I quit playing myself. I will tune in occasionally, maybe at playoff time though that is about the extent of it.

                As infrequently as I watch it is obvious Lebron is a great player who has made the effort to expand and strengthen his game and also those around him. You're not going to be the leading scorer on a championship team without putting in the work. When The Decision hit the sports pages then TV a few years it was a real what the fuck kind of moment. Now it’s 4 years and a couple championships later and he’s going back to Cleveland. Maybe Thomas Wolfe was wrong, maybe you can go home again. Only time will tell.