Tag: Basketball

  • Why is It The Older I Get, The More I Enjoy Sports?

    I have a very kind and understanding family.

    I say this because they aren’t complaining about the amount of time I have sat in one place on the couch watching the World Cup. As of this moment, I have watched some potion of each match. I’m not saying I’ve seen the entirety of every game, just at least five minutes. And I am having fun. I mean I hate FIFA, as they are a corrupt group of assholes who skim and steal everything. But the World Cup as an event is awesome.

    As I sit here in my apartment enjoying all of this sports competition, I have to wonder when I became such a sports fan?

    I didn’t use to be like this. When I was a kid and into my teens, I wasn’t a sports fan. Those were my brothers in my family. I was the arty theatre kid. I’ve always had a competitive streak in me, as everyone in my family does, but I wasn’t coordinated or talented enough to be on any team.

    But sports were always on the tv when I was growing up. My dad would watch football in the fall and winter, so that was on every Sunday and Monday night. My oldest brother was way into baseball, so the was on tv over the Summers. My other brother was way into college basketball, so we always watched the NCAA tournament. If I was going to spend time with my maternal Grandfather over the Summer up in Illinois, that meant I was going to watch the Cubs on WGN. All this inundation, but I never went out seeking to follow a sports team on my own.

    Then somewhere in my mid-twenties it all started to change. I started watching the Cowboys, and never missed a game if it was on TV. Got really into following the Cubs, and pretty much didn’t look back. And soccer has been the latest, especially with the World Cup and Tottenham.

    And I have noticed about other people my age who are in the creative fields. I swear twenty years ago, none of them would have spent any of their time watching a game from any sport. Now, they have become diehard baseball or basketball fans. And I’m not talking about the local teams starts winning, and they started following. I mean true dedication and loyalty to teams that, well, suck.

    Maybe it does have to do with getting older. My mother, over the last fifteen or so years of her life was a huge San Antonio Spurs fan, back when it was Pop, Tim Duncan and that whole gang. It was a little odd hearing her tell me stats about the team, or who was injured, or needed to step up their game. She religiously watched every one of their games over a season, and we had to adjust family plans to fit around the playoffs. She never cared about sports before, then all of a sudden, she was hooked.

    Maybe this is just how life goes; the older you get, the more you like watching competition.

  • Sports News (Unedited)

    Tell me you saw the Knicks game last night!?!?!

    I saw it all except for the 3rd Quarter, and now, I’m kicking myself for that decision.

    See, this is how it went home in my home last night. We all wanted to watch the game, so me, the wife, and the kid we’re all sitting on the couch together. Because that’s what the Knicks do; they bring people together. And it was a painful 1st Quarter. So bad that the kid was asking me if we had to watch it, because it was so bad. But I was like, no! We stick with our team no matter what, because anything could happen. (Not that I believed that in the moment, but it seemed like the right message I should pass on to my kid.) By half time, it was time to put the kid to bed, and move on to other things. After the kid was in her room for the night, I played some Mario Kart, all the while knowing that I was going to go back to the game and see it through the end. When I put it game back on it was at the nine-minute mark with the Knicks down by fifteen. The wife joined me on the couch, and we watched the next eight minutes in relative silence, neither one truly believing what we were seeing. When Brunson scored and gave the Knicks their first lead, that’s when we started the “Holy Shit! I think they might win this!” comment back and forth to each other – like a Meisner exercise. And then the ending! I wasn’t sure what I has seen, had actually happened. It didn’t feel real – did OG really score that? Then the final play, time runs out, Knicks Win! And about a minute later, fireworks start going off in our corner of Harlem. Honestly, it had been a long time since a game completely enraptured me, blocking out the whole world, and also making me see and believe that you should never give up. Never, ever give up. Keep fighting.

    Which also brings me to the start of the World Cup today; Mexico v South Africa.

    I’m just excited for the whole thing to get started. I’m tired of waiting, and just want to spend the next month on the couch watching football, and yelling at the tv. You know, like the rest if the world.

    As for the first match, I have to put my money on Mexico, and I don’t think I am going out on a wire here. They are playing in Estadio Azteca, which will be a wild and rocking place, and with that much energy and excitement behind the Mexico team, I can’t fathom that South Africa will beat them. Hell, if RSA gets one goal on Mexico, they should consider it a win.

    Maybe this goes back to growing up in Texas and my friends, but Mexico is one of my favorite teams to watch. It always feels like they never live up to expectations, but they are a fun group to watch. As of writing this, I don’t know if Ochoa will be starting in goal, but lord in heaven, if he does, then I am expecting a clean sheet from him.

    The second game of the day is rather later for me, and I might be in the throes of putting a kid to bed, so I bet that I will catch the second half of South Korea and Czechia. I’m leaning toward Korea for this one, but I do know that their squad has been hampered by injuries. What that could mean is that South Korea might not go deep in the tournament, but I imagine that they should break out of the group stage. On the other side, being that I know nothing about Czechia, I’m hoping to be surprised and learn something new. A good match would be a fair result.

    Happy Sporting!

  • Playing Sports (Unedited)

    My kid is on her school’s soccer team, and she loves it. We love it too, as it is the best way for her to burn off the huge amounts of energy that she has in reserve, and it keeps her off a screen. I don’t know if she will be a life longer soccer player/fan and honestly, I don’t care. I like that she’s playing on a team, and doing something physical.

    If you are not aware, I come from a very competing family. I wasn’t blessed with the athletic gene (though I wasn’t too bad at tennis) but playing and winning at games was a big thing in my family growing up. Lots of board games and wiffleball in the back yard. With two older brother who were nine and seven years older than me, it was difficult to beat them at sports as a kid, but that didn’t stop me from trying. My oldest brother played baseball, and my other brother was all about basketball. I tried my hand at both, but didn’t have the skills. I could through a baseball well, but couldn’t hit to save my life. As for basketball, I don’t ever remember feeling that I was coordinated enough to be good at it.

    My father had a rule in our house, which was we had to play a sport up until we turned sixteen. After I washed out of Little League, and junior high basketball didn’t have a place for me, my father suggested that I take up tennis, which was a sport he played. I took lessons once a week for two years, and I got kind’a good, but not that good. But my father’s point did sink in; you have to stay active and physical, or you will just go pot.

    So, I guess I am keeping the tradition alive. Going to keep her in a sport until sixteen, when she can decide for herself if she wants to continue.

    When I turned sixteen, I stopped the tennis lessons, and committed myself to my high school’s theatre department. Which, in a round about way, is also a team sport.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Doing Impressions, AI Algorithms, and I Picked Yale

    ODDS and ENDS: Doing Impressions, AI Algorithms, and I Picked Yale

    (Can’t believe you fake it…)

    I’m not great at it, but I am pretty good at impressions; especially at parties where people have been drinking for several hours. Now, I would like to get better at my impressions. Being that there isn’t a school for it, I’m left to my own devices for study. Currently, I’m working on a Keith Morrison impression which is developing nicely. I need to expand, and I’m thinking that a Warner Herzog will be my next goal. Then I want to go really obscure and have an impression of Bill Hader doing his impression of Al Pacino.

    I wonder if the AI algorithms get together on the dark web and swap notes of how stupid humans are, and why people keep watching the same shows over and over?

    My bracket is doing okay. I picked four games wrong yesterday. I had Clemson beating McNeese, which was the big upset yesterday. But! I had picked Yale to beat Texas A&M. Not that I’m a fan of Yale, and I don’t hate A&M; In fact I have four family members who went there. I had mentioned the other day in my Bracket blog that I always pick the Ivy League team for silly reasons. But this year, I did take a hard look at this game. Would I make the logical choice, and go with A&M, or would I stick to my plan and just make my goofy picks? My family will give me shit for picking Yale, and for many justifiable reasons. But like the McNeese win, it’s fun when the “little guy” defies expectations. Yet, I see the irony of viewing Yale as the “little guy” here. The tournament makes strange bedfellows, I guess…

  • Brackets

    It is almost Spring, which means that it’s time for everyone to make a bracket for the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

    I don’t follow college basketball; I just need to get that out there first. But what I do follow is competition, and the chance to show old friends how good I am at something I know nothing about. That’s why I love making a bracket. I don’t know crap, but now and then, I will make better picks than my friends who spend hours researching, and working on their predictions.

    For my method of making picks. I just kind’a make up a story in my head about what I think will make a dramatic tournament. I have to have several huge upsets, and small schools beating powerhouses. I like to pick the Ivy League to win in the first round, just because a “brains” beating the “jocks” is a story that is always entertaining. And then, for no good reason at all, I’ll pick a #8 seed team to win the whole thing, in honor of the 1985 Villanova team.

    I downloaded the ESPN Tournament app on my phone, but as of writing this, I haven’t put a bracket together. I normally do three, because why the hell not. One is for my “real” picks, one is just random, and one is my best guess as to which team’s mascot would win in a fight against the other team’s mascot.

    The one development this year is that my daughter is interested in make a bracket. We will knock that out after school today, and I will let her pick whatever she likes. I won’t lie, I like the idea of watching the games with my kid. That feels like a wholesome father/daughter thing to do.