Basketball!

Another passion of mine is basketball. Mind you, I am short, slow, I can't really dribble, nor can I jump all that high. Nonetheless, I love the game, simply because it's probably the only sport that I watch and say "HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT?!" out loud with no one around. And I can't help but write about basketball here, simply because this season is shaping up to be the most exciting season in my lifetime. I've watched basketball since I was about 6. I remember the first game I ever watched. I walked into my dad's TV room and asked him, "what's this, Dada?" "It's basketball," he said. I remember at the time I had no idea what was going on. All I saw was a bunch of dark-skinned guys running around, and every now and then, the one I was looking at would have some strange round orange thing. However, I do vividly remember the colors of the uniforms of the players I was watching, so I know with complete certainty that the two teams playing were the Dallas Mavericks and the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, for those of you who know anything about basketball, in the early 90's, these two teams were REALY REALLY REALLY.... sucky. Yet, all I noticed were all the strange sounds, fast movements, and the crazy music that they used to play on NBC during games in the early 90's. "DA DA DA, DA DA DA, DA DAAA." It used to go something like this...



And thus began my passion for the NBA. I liked it so much that I even played when I was in 5th and 6th grade. Needless to say, as I got older, games became more competitive, and kids like me really weren't athletic nor motivated enough to play the game. As such, I became a pure fan.

Now back to the present. As I said before, this year is shaping up to be the most exciting basketball season in my entire life. There are 9 good teams in the Western Conference battling for 8 playoff spots. Every game I've seen this season between two Western contenders has been a battle from start the finish. Usually, most regular season games in the NBA are just warm-ups to the playoffs. But now, teams have to fight for each win, because a single loss could not only cost them in terms of seeding, but a couple losses in a row could knock a team out of the playoffs completely. And then there's the East, with quite a few stinky teams, but all the good ones are legitimately intriguing. You have Boston, the rejuvenated franchise with Kevin Garnett pushing his team like my mom pushes my dad when we're late for church. You have Detroit, who have the same 7-8 guys they've had for the past decade, and yet somehow have managed to stay good the entire time. You have Orlando, with Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis flanking Dwight Howard, a young team with a lot of potential. And then you have Cleveland, with Lebron James, who has been playing out of his mind the entire season. Seriously, 30+ points, 8+ rebounds, 7+ assists per game?! Those are MJ numbers. Not only that, you have James duking it out with Kobe Bryant in the MVP race. Like I said, things are pretty exciting this season.

I'll probably come back with more basketball later, probably a little more focused, since there's so many things going on right now, I can't possibly explain them all and hope to keep interest. But, i'll definitely want to get back on several topics, including why I think no one is gonna beat Cleveland in the East, why the Rockets are winning games without Yao Ming, and why Dallas/Phoenix/San Antonio's reign over the West is completely and utterly over. Until then, I leave you with this. This is why Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA.