There was a time in my life when I got totally excited for NBA All-Star weekend. Larry Bird vs. the field in the 3-point shootout. Dominique Wilkens and Michael Jordan going head-to-head for the Slam Dunk Contest title. The greatness of the All-Star game, when Magic and Hakeem and Isiah would throw ridiculous passes and make incredible shots.
I still remember being at my best friend Andrew’s house one year, flipping back and forth between Kenny “Sky” Walker winning the Sam Dunk Contest, and the Tyson-Buster Douglas fight. We were really excited for both things.
Now? I didn’t even know it was All-Star Weekend in the NBA until late Saturday night, when I flipped around the dial and saw it on. Does anybody really care about this anymore? I don’t follow the NBA very closely, but I hadn’t heard of half the guys in the Slam Dunk contest.
Maybe it’s because I’m a college hoops junkie, or maybe it’s because the NBA has grown so stale and boring, save for LeBron James, who I will watch anytime because he’s on pace to be the greatest player ever (pause while I duck the lightning bolt about to hit me).
But the NBA has lost me in general; I’ll watch some of the playoffs, if LeBron or the Lakers are involved, and I got into the Magic last year since I got to cover a bunch of their playoff games.
But All-Star weekend? Yawn. Too much other good stuff going on, like Duke’s beatdown of Maryland Saturday (always fun to kick Maryland’s ass. For the last 10 years or so, they’ve been just as big a rival to Duke as Carolina.)
**You been following this horrible Alabama professor shooting story? It just gets worse and worse. Now it comes out that the woman who shot three people last week also shot her own brother in 1986.
How does this person get a job as a college professor? She was never charged for the ’86 shooting, as it was listed as accidental.
This thing gets worse and worse, and more sad. Amy Bishop clearly was a woman in serious need of help, who never got it.
**So I probably won’t be writing about the Olympics every day, but a couple quick thoughts from Saturday night:
— Short track speedskating is the most exciting thing going. Did you see those two South Koreans wipe out right before the finish line, when they were about to get silver and bronze medals? American Apolo Anton Ohno got lucky, and went from fourth to second in an instant.
But how much does that suck, to be training for the Olympics for years, be that close to a medal, and then wipe out (and take a fellow South Korean with you) mere feet from the finish line?
–Watched mogul skiing for the first time ever Saturday. Damn that looks painful on the knees. Very cool to see American Hannah Kearney win the gold, the U.S.’ first in the Vancouver Games. She just beat out the Canadian chick, who was in the lead for a few moments, who was trying for Canada’s first-ever home gold medal.
But I think my wife spoke for all patriotic Americans when she said, moments after the race: “Suck it, Canada!”
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