I can say with a straight face today that I am completely content with the fact that the Lakers lost yesterday, got swept, and we have most likely seen the end of this era of Laker championships. There are a couple of reasons I can say that. First, I haven't watched a complete game of NBA basketball this entire season and playoffs, and have pretty much intentionally avoided getting caught up in watching my beloved Lakers on TV. Second, while the way they lost (swept, totally losing their cool in the final game blowout) may have sucked the bottom line is they were back to back defending champions and like death & taxes the only certainty of sports is that everyone loses eventually. Third, with as exciting as the playoffs have supposedly been won't it be better to usher in a new champion than to have it all end with a third straight?
I stated after the football seasons ended that I wasn't going to let basketball take over my life, and I succeeded in that goal. I haven't watched a game of the NBA this season, and unless there is a truly unique and interesting matchup in the Finals I probably won't watch any then. This was part of my overall goal of trying to break my emotional attachments to sports. And basketball is such a roller coaster that it is easy to get caught up and get riled up. So I can pronounce this phase of this process successfully complete.
One of my favorite Bill Simmon's lines is that once your team wins a championship you as a fan should give them a 5 year grace period from getting so upset when they lose or do dumb things etc. And defending back to back championships puts the Lakers well into that honeymoon territory. Plus, look at the 'mileage' the teams best players have logged over the past couple of seasons: Kobe, Gasol, Odom, Bynum, Fisher all played in 3 straight Finals series. Kobe, Gasol, Odom also played for their national teams during the Olympics and World Championships. Thats a lot of playing time in a relatively short time, and in the case of Kobe and Fisher that's on top of a long career with 4 other Finals appearances. And when it is all said and done if Kobe gets to say he has 5 rings, plus 2 other Finals appearances on top of everything else that's an astounding Top 5 career. And every great team ends it's string eventually, players age, other teams get better, etc. it's inevitable, like I said about death & taxes.
Last, one of the great things about sports is that when one great champion ends another can appear, or (often even better) a string of competitive new teams competes every year. That is what makes football so great, there are almost no repeat championships any more, and to be honest that is what the NBA lacks. It has been nice for my team to have all of those rings. But it's not as good for the league overall to have a couple of teams dominate, new blood is essential to keep fans interested.
For all of the above reasons I am not the sad man I would have been in past years after the Lakers got stomped like a Narc at a biker rally.
No comments:
Post a Comment