Another Finals, finally

June 4, 2009


One unfortunate side effect to our quest to save money by ditching cable is that my love affair with NBA basketball gets relegated to the nether regions of the schedule.

During the regular season, it’s only a Sunday afternoon indulgence. Through the first round of the playoffs, only one in sixteen games seem to make their way to the big three. And once the Conference Finals have started, basketball has disappeared from my life altogether (not including the Internet).

But here we stand, staring down the barrel of yet another NBA Finals. An NBA Finals that can be summed up as David vs. Goliath, that is, if David was a giant and his only weakness was that no one knew who the hell he is.

I expect this to be a long, tough and physical Finals. Tougher than last year, and (unfortunately) probably more exciting. As a fresh-faced Boston fan, it’s my contractual obligation to root against the Lakers. But barring a sudden rule change that allowed the Celtics to sneak into the Finals without actually winning anything worthwhile, there isn’t another team I’d rather root for than the Orlando Magic.

I was 16 when Orlando last made the Finals. There, they faced off against a Houston Rockets team that had already won a title the year before. By butting up against an established power, an Orlando team – featuring a fresh Shaquille O’Neal and blossoming Nick Anderson – sought to prove themselves against a league superpower.

They were underdogs. They had no chance.

And despite the fact that they knocked my Pacers out of the playoffs just a round or two earlier, I couldn’t help but root for them.

It was my conference, after all. My Eastern Conference. My pride was at stake – best be beaten by the team that won it all, right? Best be a footnote in the championship recap video, rather than missing entirely from it altogether.

This year is very much the same. Orlando knocked Boston out. Dwight Howard plays the part of Shaquille O’Neal, Rashard Lewis acts as Nick Anderson. And Kobe Bryant stands in the way – a star with three rings, a sure fire Hall of Famer, a man looking to cement his legacy, to prove that the three-peat in the early 00’s wasn’t a fluke. That he can do this himself, without the big man he once stood next to.

That big man. Shaquille O’Neal. Who brings this analogy back full circle. Who was able to win a title without Kobe. That big man, who knows what Dwight Howard is going through, understands, because he was in that position – facing up not only the best team remaining, but his own insecurity in reaching the Finals at such an early age.

Dwight would do well to ask Lebron James what it means to get to the Finals before you’ve even been able to live up to the hype. Maybe he already did. After all, he’s already gone Cleveland to get here.

No one expects the Magic to win this thing. No one wanted this match-up. We’re missing Lebron vs. Kobe. Or Lebron vs. Carmello. Hell, we’re missing a rematch of last year’s Finals.

Instead, we’re looking at something we didn’t expect. A team that has come into its own earlier than we thought they would. A manchild that’s just seconds away from becoming the biggest thing in the league. Both literally and metaphorically. And he’s going against a perfect foil. Kobe: the anti-Michael Jordan; blessed with so much talent yet none of the approachability, Lex Luther to Superman, respected yet hated.

These metaphorical side stories have been happening for the past four rounds. But I’ve missed them all, only picking up the static from the Internet and text messages.

My Amazing happened all through second hand sources.

Until now. The Finals start tonight. And I’ve got a date with another year of basketball history.

Tags: Basketball, Boston Celtics, Sports |

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A love letter to Garbage Time All-Stars

April 27, 2009


Sports are too human to take seriously. They ultimately prop us up for failure; unless, of course, your team is one of 32 that wins, you’re going to be disappointed in how your season ends – and take it from me, even if your team wins, you’re sure to be disappointed the next season. Or the one after that.

Ultimately, sports are a series of agonizing stories of potential gone wrong, spiked intermittently (if you’re lucky) with stories of success.

Now, I’m not saying sports aren’t fun. I’m just saying we shouldn’t take them seriously.

Yeah right. This coming from the dude that about flipped his wife and unborn child off the couch yesterday in disgust after a particularly egregious mistake by Paul Pierce.

I say this because, every once in a while, we need to step back and enjoy sport for what it is – entertainment, a sense of belonging, action, fitness and, most of all, fun.

Which is why I love Garbage Time All-Stars.

It might be not only the best sports comic, but the best comic overall. It might not be the best basketball blog, but the best sports blog in general. I’ve loved it since I discovered it on Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie. I continue to love it, and wish they’d just quit their jobs and draw Kevin Garnett as “monster freakazoid baby-eater” for the rest of their lives.

It’s not for the non-fan – it’s chock full of NBA inside jokes and third-tier knowledge. It’s Free Darko with a pen, Questionable Content with basketball shorts. It’s funny, clever and – most of all – awesome.

And the best part: the dudes are humble.

A recent GTAS strip came equipped with a bonus panel. Attached was a contest asking for comments. It was a pretty awesome one-panel strip – a throwaway, it seemed – featuring Kevin Garnett as, you know, crazy. Below it was a little comment from the artist. The strip:


©2009 Garbage Time All-Stars


Mimicking the punch line, I said, indeed, that they sucked. Meaning it in jest of course, despite knowing the fact that sarcasm is lost on the Internet. Something about not being able to hear the tone or something.

A day or so later, I receive an e-mail filled with genuine concern. I had the type of blog that he’d hoped would be a fan of GTAS. Did I really think GTAS sucked?

Sheepishly, I explained myself, feeling awful for wrongly piercing the fragile armor of artist-hood. I know better.

On the contrary. I love GTAS. Seriously. Love it. A lot.

Which made it even cooler that I won the contest.

Thanks guys. Keep up the awesomeness.

Tags: Basketball, Boston Celtics, Random Links, Sports |

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School spirit

March 23, 2009


I didn’t give a damn about school sports when I was in high school.

There wasn’t much of a reason to in the first place. I went to Lincoln High School here in Sioux Falls. We were a smart kid school. We won debate tournaments, not football championships. We slaughtered in band, not basketball.

In fact, we seemed to only one game per year in football, and aside from a blip in 1995 we were pretty mediocre in basketball.

But now, whether it’s through some force of aging or a reminiscence for easier days or some other rah rah alma mater bullshit, I find myself caring again. I don’t follow the sports - I mean, come on, I have no connection outside of a diploma; it’s not like Sierra’s on the team or anything - but I find myself genuinely excited when the school does well.

Call it a common thread that we all have - all of us that graduated from Lincoln High, whether we were connected at the time or mortal enemies - but it’s as if we feel the same rush of electricity when our high school is mentioned. Not because of anything important, but just because it’s an item of identity. It’s part of who we are, regardless of whether we liked it at the time. It helps define us.

Part of me is there in that school. Even still today.

What I’m trying to say is that, against all odds, with the claws of irony threatening to tear away my genuine joy, I’m proud of Lincoln High School - my high school, my alma mater, my identifiable location for 9-12 grades - for doing something we all thought impossible.

On top of the sports world - not once, but twice. 2008 State 11AA Football Champions. And now, undefeated 2009 State AA Basketball Champions.

Congrats, guys. From all of us who still feel a part of it somehow.

Tags: Basketball, Football, Sioux Falls, Sports, Vilhauer |

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Season Ticket Review: Bored

February 9, 2009


Skyforce

Game 16 – Fort Wayne (10-15) at Sioux Falls Skyforce (14-13). February 6, 2009.

I couldn’t tell you the score of Friday’s Skyforce game. In fact, I had to look it up.

Actually, I wouldn’t know if the fourth quarter was as exciting as it seemed to others. I wasn’t there.

I won’t try to convince you that D-League basketball is always great. It’s not, as we saw Friday night. On one hand, we had the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (seriously, it seems like we play them every home game these days) who were running crazy, playing like, you know, the game mattered.

On the other hand, the Skyforce; camouflaged in Military Night uniforms, blending into each other as if drops of mercury rejoining the site of a spilled thermometer. They played sluggish. They didn’t care.

And, for that reason, either did we.

This was our first night seeing last year’s MVP Kasib Powell. I had hoped for a good showing, and he didn’t disappoint, seemingly the only guy who had even bothered to commit to the game. Unfortunately, his play was overshadowed by the rest of the group. A group that was tired. A group that couldn’t be troubled to fight through that tiredness. A group that was as uninterested to be there as we were come halftime.

It was a date night, and we were excited to be there without Sierra. It turns out that the best part of the evening was when we left, went to Culvers, and watched as the guy blending my Concrete Mixer was giving more of an effort than the paid basketball players we had just left.

It was sad. There were a lot of people there to witness a good time. And I know the Skyforce are a better team.

Listen to me. An angry fan, just another railing against the professionals, telling them to know their place, bitching about poor play with a ham-fisted series of lame accusations.

It was probably just an off night. But whether or not it’s because we go to fewer games, or because we were expecting something better – payback for the last two Fort Wayne losses, perhaps – or simply because we’re getting tired of being losers at home, I took the loss personally.

I took their lack of effort personally.

I took the game personally. I just hope they did the same.

Skyforce 89, Fort Wayne 95.

Tags: Basketball, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Sports |

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Boom Tho on rivalry

January 28, 2009


Checking Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo! Sports today, I was surprised to see a couple of Sioux Falls Skyforce players rocking the rebound.

Well, duh. I totally forgot that regular blogger Rod Benson plays for the Dakota Wizards, who were in town last Saturday. (We missed it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they revoked our season tickets for missing a heated rivalry game. Seriously. I feel like a chump for missing the game.)

Anyway, he does a good job of summing up the Dakota Wizards/Sioux Falls Skyforce rivalry without hyperbole, helping lend some credibility to my claim that, yes, D-League Basketball is indeed entertaining, important and high quality.

From the post:

On Saturday we played in Sioux Falls. These guys are our rivals, a rivalry that borders on the Bulls-Pistons level back in the day. I mean, I guess I should say it’s as close to that kind of hard-fought, knockdown, drag-out rivalry as a minor league basketball rivalry can be. The guys on each team are usually some of the best in the D-League. They have been with the same team for years. Of course, the whole “North Dakota vs. South Dakota” thing plays a part. The attendance is the best in the league for these games. There’s just a lot of emotion involved every time we play.

The bad thing is that Dakota won thanks to some stupid heat-of-the-moment technicals and fouls. If it wasn’t for getting into our own heads, the Skyforce would be undefeated.

Regardless, nice to see some semi-national attention for the ‘Force.

Tags: Basketball, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Sports |

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Season Ticket Review: Two nights of entertaining

January 19, 2009


Skyforce

Game 12 & 13 – Fort Wayne (5-11) at Sioux Falls Skyforce (12-8). January 15 & 16, 2008.

The last Skyforce update came nearly a month and a half ago.

It’s not that we haven’t been going to games this season. It’s just that, you know, we’ve been pretty busy, what with the world continuing to spin despite the continuation of the NBA D-League. Imagine that – even in the wake of a new season, life moves on.

Actually, I should be fair. If we’ve been missing games, it’s our own fault. We can no longer blame Sierra – especially since the advent of her willingness to hang around for the entire contest. To begin the season, we were wary of her attention span, assuming she’d be out around half-time – her natural bedtime. But, thanks to a couple souvenir balls we’ve snatched out of the air, and owing a lot to her advanced patience with daddy’s favorite sport, we’ve gotten to stay longer and longer each game.

Unfortunately, this added attention has come as the team began its decline. We began the season with a 9-2 record, losing only the season opener vs. Iowa and a lopsided contest in Austin that sparked a 9-game Toros winning streak.

But then Christmas happened – a two-point loss to Dakota at home – and then 3-6 happened.

And that’s the story of the first half of the season. After 20 games, the Skyforce were a disappointing 12-8. Looking for a spark, they sent longtime guard Carl Elliot to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants for longer-time-guard David Bailey. Things seemed as though they’d be okay – after all, we had a weekend home series against the last place Mad Ants, and we just brought back one of the most popular players of recent memory – a player who, theoretically, new the opponent about as well as you possibly could.

At both games, we were joined by company. We were surprised to see our friends Eric and Tony at the Thursday game, and just the next day we invited more friends (Jim and Mel, Sara and Ryan) to join us.

It was a different feeling to have friends at the game. For so long, we have simply made the Skyforce our little thing – never making the connection between the pastime and the friends we’d visit after the games. The Skyforce are our vice, and by having friends at the game it felt as if we were entertaining – as if we were responsible for how the team played. After years of being a hardcore fan, we found ourselves passing that fanhood on.

What’s refreshing is that our friends look at the game from a different angle. To them, it’s still fresh and somewhat exciting. They question the conventions, and they ask about things we’ve long held as truth.

We talked about half-time shows. We answered questions about the league itself, and about the team, and about the NBA affiliate system and how NBA players are sent down and D-League players called up. We went through the subtle nuances of the league and discussed the mundane nature of the Arena’s pretzels. We were Skyforce experts, and, while we might not be proud of that fact, it was fun to inform instead of grumble silently.

It was like rediscovering the game we had become so numb to, looking at them from a fan’s perspective, and not from the chiseled glasses of a bitter, long suffering cynic.

“So, who’s the go to guy,” Eric asked on Thursday.

This question stopped me. I was stunned, actually, that I couldn’t think of an answer. I didn’t know, I said. The Skyforce have never really had a go to guy. It changes daily, the team turning toward whoever had the hot hand.

On both nights, it turned out to be Frank Williams, averaging 26 points over the two contests. Newcomer/old favorite David Bailey poured in a few of his own, sure, but it was Frank – seemingly absent from the games we had attended previously – who put the team on his back and charged forward.

He was really the only consistent bright spot. As is the team’s custom, we took a lead into the half both nights, and, as is our habit, we promptly lost it in the 3rd quarter both times. The refs could be to blame – both nights saw an attempted comeback thwarted by tic-tac fouls called by a greenhorn ref – a ref who called loose in the beginning and tight near the end (the exact opposite of what you’d expect). But really, it was Carl Elliot who took the wind out of our sails, leading the Mad Ants to two straight wins on the road, sending our record to 12-10, lovingly giving us a little payback for sending him to one of the worst teams in the league.

It was the Carl Elliot we had ourselves enjoyed. And while both nights were cold, and much quieter than usual, we were torched by a Mad Ants team that simply wanted to win a lot more than we did.

It wasn’t the best face to show a set of visitors. But we couldn’t take it personally. After all – we’re merely visitors as well: visitors that show up more often than most, often leave early, and occasionally consider ourselves proud fans – fans that always end up looking on the bright side, who always enjoy the game for what it is.

It’s simply basketball. And it’s for all of us to share.

Thursday: Skyforce 127, Fort Wayne 131.
Friday: Skyforce 115, Fort Wayne 124.

Tags: Basketball, Friends, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Skyforce, Sports |

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What I’ve Been Reading - November 2008

December 4, 2008


Books acquired:
FreeDarko Presents the Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac – FreeDarko
R.E.M.: Murmur (33 1/3) – J. Niimi
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3) – Mark Polizzotti
The Pixies: Doolittle (33 1/3) – Ben Sisario
Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique (33 1/3) – Dan LeRoy

Books read:
Deadwood – Pete Dexter
FreeDarko Presents the Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac – FreeDarko
Heat – Bill Buford

For a few years, we didn’t have cable.

It wasn’t a huge loss, actually. We read a lot more, and fell in love with certain network television shows. We watched new episodes of Law and Order instead of reruns. We enjoyed each other’s company. We grew fond of the ideology of going cable-less.

Then we moved our television into the basement. We no longer received our channels as clearly as we used to. We lost PBS. We priced out an HD antenna, knowing we’d eventually need to go that route, and found that it would cost upwards of $200 just to have it installed.

We succumbed. With Sierra on the way, we needed a more passive form of entertainment. And cable was brought back into the house.

During my time with cable television over the past five years (both before and after the disconnect) there have been three constants – three undeniable can’t miss entertainment options that would always be recorded or, at least, considered appointment television: HBO’s Deadwood, Bravo’s Top Chef, and NBA basketball.

Lo and behold: my month’s reading list.

As if conceding that I’d never get back to reading until I could somehow bridge the path from my sad television addiction to my love for the written word, I found myself reading the exact combination of subjects that forced me into television’s warm womb in the first place. Amazingly, it was all though pure coincidence.

Let’s start with Dexter’s Deadwood, my annual South Dakota Festival of Books Pete Dexter purchase. Every year, without fail, I see him speak at the festival and every year, also without fail, I seem to gravitate toward his “aw shucks” mentality – a New York attitude with South Dakota sensibilities, tough enough to hold grudges but smart enough to let them pass.

This year he spent a considerable amount of time talking about his screenplays. One of these screenplays was for a film based off of Deadwood, his historically based fictional recount of Wild Bill Hickok and Charley Utter as they arrived in South Dakota’s most legendary city. He hinted that this screenplay ended up being the basis of HBO’s television series of the same name.

Very similar characters. Same setting. It all seemed very familiar to Dexter, though HBO denied ever seeing the original screenplay or even consulting the novel. Dexter was left out in the cold – his idea essentially stolen and made into one of the most successful HBO dramas not called The Sopranos. There was no point in suing, as the rewards would be less than the attorney fees. We were all left wondering what the real story was.

Regardless, as a fan of the television show, the book was welcome reminder of the power of the characters involved. While Sheriff Bullock takes a smaller role, and some of Swearengen’s best developed cronies failed to even show up, the partnership between Utter and Wild Bill was just as you imagined it – complicated, honoreable and filled with envy. Even the friction between Utter and Calamity Jane was reminiscent of the television show.

However, as is the case with most “to-screen fiction,” Dexter’s Deadwood serves as a more emotional and deep look at the time and the people than HBO’s Deadwood ever could. Chalk it up as another case of the book being better than the video production. I’ll just assume that it’s a kind of karmic payback for Dexter losing his idea in the first place.

On the trip from Wild West emotion to kitchen etiquette, you might think something would get lost. But if there’s any place left in America that harkens back to the mindset of the gunslinging, fight-for-your-place, Wild West culture, it’s the professional American kitchen. And it’s this turmoil- and adrenaline-fueled environment that Bill Buford, author of Among the Thugs (an amazing insider view of the soccer hooligan phenomenon) sought to encroach upon.

Using celebrity chef Mario Batali as his muse, Buford makes his way through the seedy underbelly of the modern American professional kitchen, learning its tricks the way a child learns to walk: by falling on his face. Constantly. It’s a brutal battle for Buford – he’s both slightly unqualified and slightly despised as a celebrity journalist in the middle of a hotly contested kitchen. He’s in the way. He’s naïve. Most of all, he’s astutely able to show just how difficult it can be.

From two seasons worth of Top Chef and several seasons worth of other behind-the-scenes cooking shows and books, including Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, I understand the difficulty of cooking in a restaurant setting. I sure as hell know I couldn’t do it. Look at those people. Just look at them!

This is what separates Heat from the rest – instead of a professional talking about his or her rise, or a series of talented chefs working their way through a contest, we’re looking at a complete amateur trying to learn the craft in an abbreviated amount of time. Not just the craft in general, but a very specific and very beloved section of that craft – Italian cooking.

It’s a thrill if you love learning about this kind of thing – for me, a lower-tier cook even at the amateur level, there’s a feeling of vicariousness, as if Buford is working the long hours and sustaining the horrid burns in order to bring this level of the craft to us in a way we can understand. His failures and discoveries become ours. His love for Italian cooking becomes ours.

But even a gastronomical revelation couldn’t keep me from an even truer love – pro basketball, the last frontier of athletics in a football-dominated country. And when The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac was released, I fell in love even more with what I still consider the most beautiful game in the world.

I was excited when this book was announced. The Web site alone sold me – and when I was able to cash in a handful of Discover Cash Back Awards, I instantly thought of this book. It arrived (adorned with several 33 1/3 books I ordered for research on a proposal) and I stopped everything. The book became my life. It was finished in just three days.

Written in what at times seems like a constant state of hyperbole, FreeDarko’s tome is a testament to two things: the superstar as savior and the book as a work of art. First, we’re given a short assessment of some of the league’s most recognizable players, from unquestionable floor leaders like Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant to the game’s biggest cancers (think Stephon Marbury and Ron Artest.) In the middle, we’re given some of the coolest illustrations and design I’ve seen in any book.

Then, we’re treated to the stunning beauty of a well-bound and illustrated book. If McSweeney’s ever branched out and released a basketball book, this would be it. Come to think of it, it’s no coincidence that FreeDarko was a regular contributor to the McSweeney’s blog several years ago. The two go hand in hand – intelligence with an eye for beauty, looking for hidden truths in the cold confines of numbers and statistics.

Would you like a player-by-player description of the monumentally bad 2000 draft (listed in the “Cancers” section)? Would you like to see a graphic representation of how most “Euro” players aren’t really European? Would you enjoy learning to love Kobe for his drive, or suspecting LeBron for his cold, calculated way of attaining success? This isn’t your typical message board prose – this is well-thought-out, intelligently written and perfectly articulated basketball talk. The kind you would expect to see in Sports Illustrated, if that magazine had the balls to do something original once in a while.

More than anything, the FreeDarko tome allowed me to better see the complexity of basketball. Just as Heat illustrated the difficulty (and, in turn, the jaw dropping ability needed) in cooking professional cooking, and just as Deadwood illustrated the deeper emotions in living a Wild West lifestyle.

It took the sanitized, time-shortened and over-produced nature of the television shows I love and allowed me to peek inside, to see the inner workings of each concept. In doing so, it also reintroduced me to an interesting concept: reading as both learning and entertainment, treating my bookshelf as if it was a remote control, with hundreds of different stories at my fingers.

It reminded me of what I was missing all those months, routinely reading the same type of book over and over again, getting stuck in a rut, forever wondering why I kept forcing my way through something I wasn’t fully into.

I’m back on the saddle, friends. I’m ready to be the reader I was always meant to be.

Tags: Basketball, Books, Literature, Television, What I've Been Reading |

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