Bill Simmons originated this column idea back in 2001, so I thought it would be cool to list some of my own reasons why I like sports.
Hubie Brown's Announcing
Brown announced the Western Conference Semifinals on ESPN Radio (Memphis-Oklahoma City), and has to be the first person in history to consistently jump into the second person while announcing games.
Here would be a sampling of how Hubie would announce my Father's Day: "OK, now if you're Tyler Tomea in this situation, you gotta wake up early. You can't be sleeping until 11:00 a.m., or noon, you have to be up early. Then, first thing you gotta do, you gotta wish your dad a Happy Father's Day. Very important. If you don't do that, your mind's somewhere else. Now if you're Tyler Tomea, this is your plan for the rest of the day..." Amazing.
"This is Why I Like Sports" Moments
A truly great game or transcendent moment that makes you think to yourself, so this is why I like sports. The most recent example would have to be last year's World Cup. Two draws put the U.S. into a do-or-die situation. With simultaneous kickoffs, the Americans saw England up on Slovenia. The U.S. needed to defeat Algeria, or soccer in the country would be in a disastrous position. Not getting past the group stage for a second World Cup in a row? Not advancing in a group with Slovenia, Algeria and a weaker than usual England squad? And then, in stoppage time......
And it had to be Landon Donvoan that scored that goal. The perfect person, in the perfect situation. I'll never forget how I felt when that goal was pushed across. United States 1, Algeria 0.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, I've watched this video 57 times.
Horse Racing Analysts
I only follow horse racing three times a year, but for some reason, I watch the "pregame shows" in their entirety on those days. It always amazes me how NBC can open the broadcast at 4 p.m. for a race with a post time of 6:24 p.m. Still, for some reason, I watch.
My favorite part is when a commentator will say, "You know, Animal Kingdom is really looking for redemption today in the Belmont after his Preakness run," to which the other commentator replies, "Redemption of course, Animal Kingdom has to be motivated for this final leg." You know, if Animal Kingdom actually knew what "redemption" and "motivation" meant based on the fact that he is a horse.
Team Basketball Prevailing
I don't want to pile on LeBron after the criticism he's taken in the last few weeks. Wait a second, what am I talking about?!?! I'd love to pile on LeBron! 18 points total in the fourth quarter, Dallas victorious in six, Wooooo!
Watching Jim Zorn Coach
Since I go to college in Washington, D.C., my Sundays during my freshman year usually consisted of tracking games against spread (if it were legal), frantically refreshing my fantasy football team page, trying to explain to my two roomates the concept of football and watching Zorn coach. I always enjoyed the confused look on his face while staring at the play call sheet: It was like he was trying to decipher hieroglyphic code. Oh yeah, and then there's this:
This will be the first and last time you ever hear the words, "And the kicker is motion..."
Sports Betting
Simmons perfectly summarizes what makes this so great: The team you bet on becomes "your team" for the next three hours. If it wasn't for this, why would I care if the Jacksonville Jaguars won, or lost by less than 3.5 points. For those three hours, I'm rooting for the Jags as hard as I would if it was Duke-UNC in the middle of February.
Rooting for "Your Guy"
For me, it's always been J.J. Redick. He was the sole reason I became a Duke fan, because his game is similar to mine (good jump shooter, good free throw shooter). Plus, he's white.
As a middle schooler, I would wear my white Duke No. 4 jersey to school on a daily basis, and my nightly rituals consisted of watching him play and then imitating him the next day during basketball practice.
My best memory by far is the Duke-Texas game (No. 1 vs No. 2) in East Rutherford, N.J. during his senior year. Duke always makes at least one trip to New York or New Jersey during the holiday season, and a tradition of mine is attending these games with my Dad. He scored 41 points. On nine 3-pointers. In a 97-66 Duke win. That's my guy!
A ninth-grade version of me was at this game, at a time when I was convinced I'd be playing college basketball for Duke.
Since 1985, when the NBA Finals is tied at one apiece, the winner of Game 3 has been crowned champion in all 10 instances. With that in mind, I thought there would be no better time than now to write a second-half running diary of Sunday's game. (That, and because I don't feel like slipping into a severe depression while watching the Mets on Sunday Night Baseball).
Through seven quarters in this series, I was thinking a Heat championship was definite and all I could do was hope for Fake Rapture #2 to come along before Miami was handed the trophy. But then, just as I had thought about turning off the TV during Game 2.... Dirk came through!
And now we're here, in Dallas for Game 3, with one team about to take control of this series. Here goes the running diary:
9:32 p.m. I'm joined by a grilled chicken sandwich, a can of Pepsi and a half-eaten bag of barbecue Lay's potato chips. 47-42 Miami halftime lead.
9:34 p.m. Joel Anthony starts the second half with a block of Nowitzki, and then on the other end, outruns five Mavericks for an easy layup. And yes, I'm just as surprised as you are that the preceding sentence actually happened.
9:36 p.m. Following a Shawn Marion one-handed floater from the baseline (an awkward shot, even by his standards), Bosh converts a layup to put Miami up 53-42 and Dallas calls timeout. You're at home, you closed the half on an 11-2 run, the series is tied at one, and the Mavs come out flat. Makes perfect sense.
9:38 p.m. Wade has shown amazing energy in this game- hustling for loose balls/crashing the offensive boards/playing on the attack, and his steal leads to the 373rd Miami dunk of this Finals. 8-0 Heat run to open the second half. 55-42.
9:42 p.m. Question you definitely won't hear at work tomorrow: "So, what did you guys think of the WNBA opening weekend?"
9:45 p.m. Great defensive possession by Dallas (LeBron stripped in the lane, Bosh airball) leads to a Kidd 3-pointer to cut the Miami lead to seven at 55-48. I watched Kidd during his prime in New Jersey, and if you told me he would have improved his jump shooting this much throughout his career, I would have never believed you.
9:46 p.m. So how does Jason Segel understand that Jordan is better than LeBron, but Scottie Pippen doesn't? (Shaking my head).
9:50 p.m. Dirk for three makes it 55-51, but Wade answers right back with a layup. 57-51 Heat with six minutes left in the third. If I'm a Miami fan, I'm still confused as to why it was LeBron launching threes and controlling the ball at the end of Game 2 rather than Wade. It's obvious Dallas has no answer for Wade. At all. (Wait, why am I saying this? I want Dallas to win. Um..... More LeBron threes in the clutch!)
9:53 p.m. Chandler with two blocks on Anthony. Can't emphasize enough how much I love Chandler with Dallas. Tough, high-impact player; nice trade by the Mavs. Nowitzki then hits a patented Nowitzki jumper, LeBron comes up short, and Marion on the fast break ties it at 57 apiece. Dallas on a 15-4 run.
9:57 p.m. Somehow, Peja Stojakovic gets rotated onto Wade at the top of the key. Jeff Van Gundy approrpiately lets out an, "Oh my." In an upset not seen since the United States took down the Soviets in the Olympics, Stojakovic forces Wade to kick it out to Haslem (who misses).
9:59 p.m. Two straight consecutive threes by the Heat (Lebron and Chalmers) put Miami in front 64-59 with less than two minutes remaining in the third. "A dagger three," says Mark Jackson. Yes, that's exactly what it was, a dagger three with 14 minutes left to be played in the game.
10:02 p.m. Ian Mahinmi fouls Juwan Howard as I wonder to myself why I just wrote those two names in a running diary about the NBA Finals. Howard makes one of two, 65-62 Miami.
10:04 p.m. Barea beautifully splits the Miami double team and kicks it to Marion in the corner for what would be a game-tying three. Off the mark. 67-64 Miami as we head to the fourth, and I'm feeling another "This is why I love sports" finish. A buddy of mine texted me asking who Mahinmi was, leading me to jokingly respond, "Wait a second, you call yourself an NBA fan and you haven't heard of Ian Mahinmi? He's one of the most relevant players in the NBA!"
10:09 p.m. Long delay with a drink spilled on the floor. One quick thing from Game 2. It was pretty obvious LeBron wanted his "Finals Moment." Leading by two with 1:30 left, he took two 26-foot 3-pointers, dominated the ball down the stretch and decided he'd rather launch from beyond the arc for that signature dagger instead of taking the ball to the hole/giving it to Wade, who had been slicing through the Dallas defense all night. Also, did Wade's 3-pointer in front of the Dallas bench from Game 2 shift the enitre landscape of this series?
10:11 p.m. The delay also allows us to consider which is better: the introduction to the NBA Finals, or the Stanley Cup commercial.
10:13 p.m. Barea with five points to open the quarter, and Nowitzki drills a three to help Dallas keep pace with Miami early in the fourth. Miami is called for a loose ball foul as we head to commercial with 8:48 remaining, 74-72 Heat.
10:16 p.m. LeBron James called for a travel, which means I'm fully expecting a UFO sighting in the next 30 minutes. (I'm only half-kidding).
10:21 p.m. A Chalmers three-pointer follows a Haslem jumper to make it 79-72 Miami. I like Chalmers; he hits big shots and isn't afraid to take them on a team with James, Wade and Bosh.
10:26 p.m. With 6:30 remaining, Chandler comes in with a big-time follow dunk to make it 79-74. If ever there was a time for the Mavs to make a run, it's now.
10:28 p.m. Wade and Nowitzki trade baskets, and then LeBron gets called for a double dribble after being called for traveling earlier in the quarter. I'm now convinced the world will end tomorrow.
10:32 p.m. Nowitzki layup and two free throws (26 points, eight rebounds) pulls Dallas to within three at 81-78 with under five minutes remaining. If Dallas is going to win this game, they're going to need someone other than Dirk to step up. I'm looking at you, Jason Terry. Either him or Marion, those are the only options the Mavs have.
10:35 p.m. Wade pulls up and drills a three to extend the Heat lead to six. Except for five minutes in the fourth quarter of Game 2, this has been Dwyane Wade's series.
10:39 p.m. Anytime you're up six on the road in the NBA Finals, I fully support commiitting two loose ball fouls and sending the other team's best free throw shooter to the line twice. Stupid fouls that shouldn't be committed, especially at a time when Dallas has been missing shots left and right. 84-82 Miami with 3:03 to go after four Dirk free throws.
10:41 p.m. A beautiful backdoor by Nowitzki ties it up. Wade comes back with a jumper to put the Heat up two, and then Nowitzki answers with a wing shot of his own. Tied at 86, under two minutes to play.
10:42 p.m. This is great.
10:43 p.m. Dallas doubles Wade, then doubles LeBron, who kicks to an open Bosh who drills the corner jumper for an 88-86 Miami lead. If you're Dirk, you somehow have to fight around that Haslem screen and contest that shot. How can Bosh get that good of a look, with under a minute remaining, in a tie game in the Finals?
10:45 p.m. Dirk gets caught in the air and turns it over. Worst possible possession. Miami has a chance to ice the game and settles for a long two-point jumper from LeBron. He misses. Mavs call timeout, 88-86 with four seconds left.
10: 47 p.m. This is why I love the Finals. Everyone knows this ball is going to Dirk. Everyone. If he wants his first ring, he needs to hit this shot or try to do something that hasn't been done in 26 years. Haslem's assigned to him and we've seen this shot thousands of times; a shot Dirk has become famous for and a shot only he can hit. It's his shot. Nine out of 10 times it goes down. And it's...... too strong. Off the back of the rim as Miami wins 88-86 to take a 2-1 series lead.
A few things from this game:
1) If you're a Mavs fan, you have to be feeling like you've just been repeatedly punched in the gut. If it wasn't for the fourth quarter in Game 2, Dallas would be down 3-0 and we'd be days away from the only basketball coming from the WNBA. This game was there for the Mavs; they outrebounded Miami, and attempted 12 more free throws than the Heat (no chance of this happening in Miami). It was there and they didn't get it done.
2) Someone on the Mavs has to step up. Stojakovic's stroke has gone missing since the Lakers series (rendering him useless), and the Miami defenders are in Terry's head with him complaining after every jumper.
3) With that said, you can't say enough about Miami in this game, and in this series. Wade has put together a masterpiece through three games in this series, and the Mavs have no one to stop him. And they know it. It's eerie how much his control on this series has been similar to Games 3-6 of the '06 Finals.
4) That Dirk shot to end the game tonight reminded me of Ewing's miss in Game 7 of the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Ewing was the Knicks, and Dirk is the Mavs. The Knicks had a three-year window for the title: '93 (loss to Chicago in ECF), '94 (loss to Houston in Finals) and '95. When Ewing missed the game-tying shot against Indiana in Game 7 in '95, everyone knew the window of opportunity slammed shut for that team. It's only Game 3, but with that Dirk miss, I get the same feeling with this Mavs squad.
10:58 p.m. Again, I'm reminded by the broadcast that no team has won the title after losing Game 3 with the series tied 1-1. I hope I'm wrong, but it's looking like LeBron, Wade and Bosh will get their first ring together. I'm off to go find a bridge to jump from.
10.) Kwame Brown, 2001 Draft: It's never a good sign when the three subheadings listed under the "Personal" section of your Wikipedia page read as follows: "Rape accusation," "2007 arrest" and "Cake incident." What is "Cake incident," you ask? In January 2007, Brown grabbed away a two-foot chocolate cake from a man and threw it back at him. You know, because that's what athletes in charge of saving a franchise are supposed to do. Brown has bounced around the league, playing for five teams in his career, and is still somehow in the NBA.
9.) Greg Oden, 2007 Draft: It's never a good thing when you spend more time snapping pictures of your dong than you do actually being on the court, but that's been the problem for Oden. Looking back, it's easy to second guess Portland's choice of opting for Oden over Kevin Durant, but Oden was the consensus No. 1 pick throughout the year and cemented his status with a dominanting performance in the '07 national title game (25 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks). But at this point, any NBA general manager has to wonder how effective someone who has played 82 total games in four years (average of 22 minutes in those games) can be.
8.) Andrea Bargnani, 2006 Draft: Who plays better defense: Andrea Bargnani, or the chair Yi Jianlian practiced against in his workouts leading up to the 2007 NBA Draft. You probably said Bargnani, but the fact that you had to think about the answer is a bit terrifying. In addition to his seemingly complete unawareness at times on the defensive end, Bargnani needs to stop playing soft and rebound much better. Averaging more than 30 minutes per game for his career, simply by existing on the court a seven-footer should average more than five rebounds. A lethal offensive player without a strong defensive game, Bargnani's value lies in fantasy sports and video games.
7.) Andrew Bogut, 2005 Draft: I spent way too much time deciding on how to rank these next three, but I went with Bogut at this spot and here's why: Flashback to the 2005 NBA Draft, and you could tell from his time at Utah that Bogut would be a solid NBA player. And he has. But you knew there was the very real potential that Chris Paul could be a superstar. (Six years later, and I still regret not faxing my resume to the Atlanta front office after they passed on Paul to take Marvin Williams). And you had a strong hunch Deron Williams could be a superstar as well. With that, Bogut's production ranks him at the No. 7 spot.
6.) Yao Ming, 2002 Draft. It's always hard to come into a new team as the No. 1 pick and with the expectations of a city and a fanbase riding on your shoulders. It's 10 times harder when you don't speak English, don't have an aggressive personality and are trying to fit in with your teammates. I always wondered how Yao and Steve Francis hung out in those first few days together, but the center developed into a very good player who has never averaged less than 10 PPG in his seven years in the league (not counting this year). With his career in jeopardy the future looks bleak for Yao, but remember how good he was at his peak (2005-2008) when he averaged 23.1 PPG and 10.2 RPG. And if that's not enough, he had this!
5.) John Wall, 2010 Draft: Aside from joining a team that was completely awful, Wall was faced with the common task of replacing a former all-star point guard who drew a gun on his teammate during a locker room dispute. The rapture will most likely come before the Wizards are relevant again, but Wall would have won Rookie of the Year if not for the next person on the list. He should be a poor man's Derrick Rose, with a ceiling maybe a little bit higher, and he really is the only reason why I attended three Wizards games this past season. As crazy as it sounds, I didn't go to the Verizon Center because of Yi.
4.) Blake Griffin, 2009 Draft: 1.) Winning the War of Independence in 1783. 2.) The creation of the Internet. 3.) The first landing on the Moon. 4.) Blake Griffin making the Clippers relevant. That's my list for the most impressive feats in US history. Before Griffin, the Clippers were bad and there was no reason to watch them. With him, they're fun to watch, and there's an 80 percent chance each game of a "Blake Moment" that just makes you say Wow. His game will need to be more refined as his career goes on, and he'll always top the list of players you have to see in person at least once. Now, if only the Clippers hadn't traded an unprotected first round pick to Cleveland this offseason....
3.) Dwight Howard, 2004 Draft: If you knew absolutely nothing about basketball, but happened to turn on a game one night, you'd think Howard would be the most dominant player on the floor. Easily. But at the end of games, it's impossible to feed him because his offensive repertoire is so limited. When I had read that Howard had been working with Hakeem Olajuwon this offseason, I had hope. Maybe it was me wanting Howard to become as dominant as he should be, and not believing it wasn't possible, but I had hope. There's always that feeling there should be more with the three-time Defensive Player of the Year, which puts him in contention as the league's most frustrating player to watch.
2.) Derrick Rose, 2008 Draft: The moment I knew came during the 2008 Final Four. Rose finished with 25 points and nine rebounds against UCLA, making 11 of 12 free throws on the night. If only he had made those in the championship game two nights later. (Still bitter). But just seeing the stat line doesn't do that performance justice. It was the plethora of show-stopping moves and stutter-steps, to go along with his speed, that allowed him to put his fingerprints all over that Final Four. You knew he was ready. On a side note, I always think it's funny how the time period between the last college game and the NBA Draft allows scouts ample time to pick apart these prospects, like when some had convinced themselves that Michael Beasley would be better than Rose.
1.) LeBron James, 2003 Draft: It doesn't exactly take Watson The Computer to figure out who will top this list. The best player in the league, on a team that is one win away from reaching the NBA Finals. I remember watching James' high school games when I was in middle school, and the hype surrounding him was like nothing I had seen before. Obviously, he was what everyone made him out to be. The most obvious No. 1 pick of the past ten years has been the best, and what I'm interested in is where James ranks in the pantheon of all-time NBA greats when his Heat contract runs out.
