SubscribeI should care (?)
When it comes to championship games in basketball and hockey, I’m usually a Johnny-come-lately, like a lot of sports consumers. I’ll watch a lot of basketball during the regular season, but don’t really follow any one team. The joke is that you don’t need to watch a game until that last couple of minutes. By then it’s really exciting or far enough out of hand that you know who’s going to win.
It seems the leagues governing bodies need a new “grab” each year to generate interest, especially if the marquee teams (Los Angeles Lakers, NY Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics) aren’t involved . This year in the NBA championships it’s the hard-working, exciting young team, the Oklahoma City Thunder versus the team everyone loves to hate: the Lebron-Wade-Bosh-led Miami Heat. The east-west coast rivalry is also a natural, although it can mess with the starting time; yesterday’s game in Oklahoma didn’t get under way until after 9 p.m.
I usually like a series to go the distance for maximum drama (Unless it’s my team involved, in which case I want a four game sweep by ridiculously decisive margins). But my loyalties seem to switch to whichever team is behind at the time: rachmones for the underdog, I suppose.
Last time I checked, Oklahoma is not on the West Coast.
Didn’t you get the memo?
Jewish angle here, albeit not the most compelling, lol, is Micky Arison, the Jewish owner of Carnival Cruise Lines and the Miami Heat, and Miami assistant coach, Ron Rothstein. Rothstein is also the first head coach in Miami Heat history, but, as with most expansion teams, those years were pretty dreadful.
By the way, OKC is in the West bc they are formerly the Seattle Supersonics and I guess the NBA still hasn’t gotten around to realignment. Same case with the Grizzlies now in Memphis after originating in Vancouver. Probably other geographic stretches as well, but I guess you have to balance out the conferences somehow and use loose guidelines.