Chp 75. WC Interval - NBA Finals

World Cup World Cup World Cup everywhere. I’m sure this is the highest publicity and popularity the game football ever reached here in India.

In a way, it’s nice to know that Cricket is not the only sports people talk about right now. But I think sometimes people tend to over-do things a bit. This is the first time ever in ESPN history that the NBA Conference Finals is not broadcasted LIVE. Five years ago, ESPN used to show LIVE games of NBA atleast thrice a week. Now, not even the Conference Finals is broadcasted LIVE. Football has completely overtaken Basketball.

My team, the San Antonio Spurs lost in the semis. Too bad Duncan, Bibby, Ginobili, Finley, Horry, Van Axel, Barry, Bowen etc.. Anyway, since the Finals was between the Mavs and Heat, both first timers to reach the Finals, I decided to cheer for the Mavs. I hate the Heats line-up. I mean, yeah, I got nothing against D.Wade. He plays God level (and eventually got the MVP award which he truly deserved), but I’ve always hated Shaq. Take away that height and weight and all you have is a talentless no good clumsy stupid oaf who can’t even convert a free-throw for nuts. And I also despise ex-Sonics and later ex-Lakers Payton and ex-Celtics Antoine Walker. I just hate the way they throw their attitude around. But then, I used to love and still do, Alonzo Mourning. He’s one of my all time favourite players, and if people must throw their attitude around, they should do it like him, not like how Payton, Walker or Kobe does. God I hate those b@strds. Plus Mourning was the main Heat player during the days of Jordan and Pippen.

Anyway, Mavs too had a great team. Novitski is still there (Damn, can you believe he’s just a freaking year older than me?) and Terry too had a great game 1 and 2. And then there’s one player I really like by the name of Marquis Daniels because he has some part of the Bible’s Songs tattooed to his chest! Seems when he was young he used to read to his grandma the Bible everyday and hence memorized most of it and that “Songs” was his favorite passage. I find that really cool, funky and sweet at the same time. Mavs took a 2-0 lead in the best of 7 Finals but they just couldn’t keep up with Wade raining down shots from everywhere in the next 4 games and hence lost the series. If only the likes of Nash and Finley were still there at Mavs, Heat would have definitely been history.

If you are a true sports buff like me, what would be the one thing you hate the most in this entire Universe? That the team you’re supporting just lost due to an unfair referee’s decision? Nopes. There is one thing much worse than that. And that is, when you are not able to watch the Finals LIVE and hence has to settle for a replay, and so you spend the whole day not contacting any of your friends or surfing the internet or peeping into the sports section of the papers for fear that you might know the result. And while you’re so deeply engrossed in watching the replay, somebody calls you up and tells you the final score!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And in my case, the culprit is none other than my dear friend Sowmya who has been leaving a lot of comments on my past few posts. Yes, Doctor Sowmya. Gawd I hate you!!!!! She called me up from Hyderabad while the game was into the 3rd quarter and since she was planning to party here at Mumbai for the weekend, I picked up her call so that we can plan out where to meet up n stuff. And then she asked me what I’m up to and I absentmindedly told her I’m watching the NBA Conference Finals and then she said, “Oh, Heats won”. Aaaargh aaaaargh aaaargh aaaaargh!!! It was right then that everything just stopped, you know, like in those comedy sitcoms when everything is going on fine until somebody just said something to screw it up and then you hear the sound of a movie reel abruptly stopping “krrrrreechhh”.

Anyway thanx a lot for spoiling the fun Sowmya. And don’t try to justify it by saying Mavs were going to lose anyway. Sports is not just about the final score. It’s about enjoying the entire game and that’s one of the reasons why we guys become couch potatoes… I’m sure you don’t want me to get into the whole “women and sports” thingie again, do you? Plus, I don’t want the fair ladies like flygirl, aishwarya, sunshine, virgochhas lashing down my throat again