Monday, February 18, 2013
happy birthday michael jordan
sports: On February 17th Michael Jordan turned fifty years old. Normally the birthdays of even the most famous athletes is not cause for much more than brief a mention. But as I have found out over the past week or so on various television outlets and in magazines and online, this seems to be a special occasion. Just about every major media outlet was doing retrospectives on Jordan. Reminding us that he is the greatest basketball player ever. They talked about his stats, of which are always just staggering to look at. It is amazing how many lists of NBA accomplishments around between just Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain, or belong to Jordan and no one else. The MVP's, the championships, the scoring titles, even mentioning his streak of ten straight triple doubles during a rather remarkable run by Lebron James recently. We also got to see tons of highlight packages. The dunks and buzzer beaters and fade away jumpers and always that shrug in the 1992 Finals. And every time they ended on that game winning shot that put an exclamation point on the best career in basketball history in the 1998 Finals. Or as Jordan himself said, it was like a perfect bookend. In 1982 his career began at North Carolina with a buzzer beater that put him on the map in the NCAA championship game and it ended that way with the Bulls all those years later.
But beyond the stats and beyond the rings is the impact that Jordan had on young boys around the city of Chicago. People like me, who grew up watching him were given a unique experience. I was nine and living in the southwest suburbs of Chicago when the Bulls won their first championship. Before that I was really only aware of Michael Jordan as this guy who was the biggest star in the city I was from and the dude with the funny Mars Blackman advertisements. I was a baseball fan.
All of a sudden I became aware that the Bulls were going to win the NBA championship in 1991. And that was when everything changed. At some point in that year (I can't remember exactly when) people started saying not that we could win the championship but that we would. I started to pay attention just to see the excitement After the Bulls swept the Pistons in the Conference Finals in a moment that ruined my view of all of those players forever (we'll maybe get to Rodman's redemption later) and Jordan switched hands in mid-air, at which point I thought I saw a man fly for the first time ever, I was sold. I was a fan.
The Bulls did win the championship and over that summer I immersed myself in the Bulls. I just lost my mind. I read and watched everything I could. And when the next season got ready to start I just assumed we would win the championship We did. (Yes I am saying "we" like I was a part of the effort.) Another summer went by filled with driveway pickup games and little league. The 92-93 began and I just figured that meant another title in Chicago, and sure as the change of seasons, it came.
The next two seasons were a little different. Jordan retired for the first time and I was left to watch my team lose. In 93-94 the Bulls had a very successful season considering losing Jordan the previous off season, making it back to the Conference Finals. I sweated nearly another full season of basketball with a team that was not quite good enough to go all the way, a concept I was still adjusting to. Then on March 18th 1995 order was restored. A fax was shown on every news station in the city and, for all I knew, the country. It said, "I'm Back."
I spent the next couple months watching Michael Jordan play himself back into shape in a way only he could, more buzzer beaters and fifty plus point performances in Madison Square Garden. But then that off season there was a new talk around town. People were talking not just about a championship but also about this being "the best team ever." The Bulls were going to break the Lakers record of 69-13. As with everything else, I just figured that it was going to happen. We still had Phil Jackson and Scottie Pippen. We got Dennis Rodman, the best rebounder off all times (when you consider his size it almost impossible to argue.) and Michael Jordan was back for the whole year. He had never let me down and I knew he wouldn't now. My blind trust was reward with a 72-10 season and another championship (just a quick side note: I would put 72-10 right up their with Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak and Cy Young's 611 wins as an unbreakable record. That win-loss record is simply preposterous).
Two more championships followed as I continued to assume the best. Then in one fell swoop it was all gone. Jordan, Pippen, Jackson, and Rodman were all gone. The Bulls were a bad team, years away from success and in full on rebuilding mode. As I started following the rest of the league I became confused. Surely there was some newfangled brand of basketball being played or the quality of players was going down. What kind of lame league was I watching where scoring leaders couldn't even average 30 points a game. Why was there a different guy leading the league in scoring every year? Couldn't somebody just take over the league? Eventually I realized that the answer to those questions was that Michael Jordan was gone.
But I also realized I was a fan of the league and the game. I continued to love the Bulls. But in their losing times I found other players and teams to enjoy as well: Chis Webber's Kings, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Kobe, and Tim Duncan among others.
There is now hope in Chicago with the arrival of Derrick Rose. He has Bulls fans believing that championships are possible again. But hope is different than certainty. And that is what we had in the '90s with Jordan. Certainty. And that is the thing I have come to reflect on the most. There is now a generation gap. I now sometimes work with people who are too young to remember what those championship years were like. I have also moved away from Chicago. And when people ask me why I love basketball so much that is what I tell them. I ask them to imagine waking up every morning knowing that a team and player you rooted for were always going to deliver. Want to win championships? Done. Want to have the best record for a single season ever? Done. Want to always watch the greatest player be the greatest player ever night no matter what else was going on? Done. There was no doubt. I don't think I even considered having doubt. Michael Jordan would never let us lose. It was impossible.
Since then I have been in search of that feeling only to continually feel let down. Tiger Woods has let me down. Tom Brady has let me down. In the same way that I didn't understand why basketball players couldn't do what Jordan did after he left the game, I started to wonder why none of these other "best evers" lost. If they were really the best ever, like Michael Jordan was, they wouldn't ever lose. But then again those greats, even in other sports, Weren't Michael Jordan.
I would like to think I wasn't spoiled too much as a child. But in this specific case I was. I was spoiled by winning. I was spoiled by getting to see the greatest ever at what he did 100 days a year. And I was spoiled by getting to see it at such a young age. Normally I would say that being spoiled is a bad thing. But in this case I don't. So thank you Michael Jordan. Thank you for letting me watch you be the best ever. Thank you for letting me see your teams be the best ever. Thank you for showing me the highest form of what it is to win and to deliver at all costs every day. And right now, happy birthday.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
my super bowl sunday
sports: The couple of days leading up to the Super Bowl were kind of tough on me. I was busy with work and a friends birthday and just keeping on the day to day. I also knew that I wanted to write a post about the Super Bowl before it happened. As I got more and more busy and time to write that got shorter and shorter it became harder to do.
Then the irrational superstitious sports fan in me took over and I became totally at home with not doing a Super Bowl prediction post. The day of the game was also my friend Matt's birthday. Matt is from San Francisco and a 49ers fan having grown up through the glory days of Montana and Rice and Young. I realized that I had written in consecutive weeks that the Niners were the best team in football and yet picked against them. For a number of reasons I decided well before the game that I was going to pick San Fran this time. I still thought they were the best team in the league and was finally ready to right my wrongs in that respect. I was sold on Colin Kapernick. Maybe most importantly I believed that this game would come down to which defense could stop which offense, and the answer to that to me was the Niners, simply because their defense was better, younger and faster than the Ravens. Then there was the least important reason: as a Patriots fan I just don't like the Ravens. I was all ready to put all that out there in the universe and in greater detail, and then realized that I had picked against the Niners despite how I felt about the team and became so irrationally sure that I couldn't pick them and expect them to win. And with it being Matt's birthday, I wanted them to win for him. So I wrote nothing. And when he asked why I wrote nothing I lied and and made up something about being tired and needing to rest to adequately party for the big game just so that I wouldn't undo my irrational belief that not making that pick would keep him from having to watch his team lose the Super Bowl on his birthday.
We were settled in to watch the game, watching the clock on the over/under on the National Anthem. Then the game begins. San Fransisco comes out jittery and goes three and out after a penalty negates their first play, a pass to Vernon Davis. No big deal its just the first drive. After an efficient ensuing drive, Joe Flacco hit's Anquan Boldin up the middle for a touchdown and Phil Simms tells us all that we just seen how the Ravens have had success this year. I suddenly remembered that there was, no matter the outcome, something to enjoy during the game. I could make fun of Phil Simms! Anyone who has watched the the Ravens knows, especially during these playoffs, that they have success when they go deep on the outside, not with Brady-esque precision plays through the middle. Despite all that being said, it was a hell of a pass.
The first half was about as bad as possible. We sat and drank and watched the Ravens route the 49ers to the tune of 21-6. The commercials weren't even good enough to make either of us forget what we were watching. Our only relief was getting to constantly hear Simms compliment the play of Haloti "NAAAHTAAAHHHHH". Matt hid his disdain behind his California cool while scarfing pizzas and Miller Lite's.
Halftime was a welcomed break. We talked about how we were sure that things would change. Kapernick was too exciting to not make something happen. That defense was too good not to come up with some stops. Jim Harbaugh was too good a coach to not make adjustments and get them back in this game. Also we had Beyonce to take our minds off things. The lights and the fires and her spectacular outfit (come on, every dude in America was glad she was wearing that). We even got a wierdly TMZish upskirt shot to start the show and the return of Destiny's other two children to end it.
After the pep talks, Beyonce, a smoke and a fresh beer we were ready to start the second half that we were sure would bring a comeback worthy of being the Atlanta encore. Then Jacoby Jones ran 108 yards in Olympic time. Clearly Matt and I were going to need another fresh beer soon. But as I finished that one I could at least have a laugh as I heard Simms yell "Don't run it out of the endzone!!!!!" during that run back.
All of a sudden the lights went out while it was third and thirteen for the Niners right as the game was about to get way out of hand. I don't go to a lot of comedy shows. But I am sure that anyone who has ever done improv before thought that the CBS football crew was the funniest thing they had ever seen as they struggled to talk for half an hour. Bill Cowher even suggested putting in Alex Smith! Wasn't the whole reason that Kapernick was playing instead of Smith was because of Smith's struggles playing from behind that could be remedied by Kapernick's explosiveness and huge arm? For the record I don't think I really believe that Cowher believed this was the right move. But when you have thirty minutes of dead air to fill you just want a talking point. And he found one.
Thankfully the lights came back on. We were hoping that all of that preaching Shannon Sharpe had done about shifting momentum in favor of the 49ers was true. Despite the fact that they didn't convert on third and thirteen, on their next possession (after a three and out by Baltimore) the change would start to come. San Fransisco marched up the field and capped their first touchdown drive of the day with a play by Michael Crabree that saw two Ravens defenders run into each other instead of Crabtree. Finally there was something to smile about. Then: RAY RICE FUMBLED THE BALL!!!!!!!! Bang bang on a short field and Frank Gore runs in a touchdown. All of a sudden that 28-6 massacre has become 28-20. And there was still five minutes left in the third quarter. Matt's California cool is starting to fizzle as he actually cheers out loud for the first time since I have known him; I know there is hope. Phil Simms probably mentioned a blown play by Haloti NAAAAHTAAAAAH. I think it is somewhere around this point that I wonder why Wilem Defoe is playing the devil in a car ad(by the way, Defoe totally one my award for random celebrity sighting in an ad of which there were a few: Naya Rivera having the red M&M sing Meat Loaf to her, Stevie Wonder and Zoe Saldana doing wierd voodoo on a dudes chair. What was going on!?). Before the end of the quarter David Akers added a field goal that only went through because he got ran into on the first attempt, which he missed, and was able to make the second attempt. After that kind of terrible play by the Ravens, maybe they didn't deserve to win. 28-23.
The fourth quarter ended being as great as one could have hoped. A field goal by the Ravens stretched the lead back to eight. A touchdown run by Kapernick and a failed two point conversion cut the lead to two. Then with just over four minutes left The Ravens get another field goal to take the lead back up to five. Leaving no shortage of drama, the 49ers marched the ball down in side the five year line at the two minute warning. But that is where things finally went too haywire even for this game to continue.
Coming out of the two minute warning, the Niners had to spend a time out to avoid a delay of game penalty, leaving themselves only one more. People have argued the use of this time out. If you take the five yard penalty you still can throw on third and fourth down and if you don't you have two timeouts and whatever time is left to stop the Ravens and go the length of the field. If using that one meant that the Niners were banking on scoring on that drive or they would lose the game. So that was questionable to begin with. But once you use the timeout to keep the ball at third and goal inside the five with over a minute and half to go you accept the situation and make the most of it. So on third down they throw the ball. This is where all comprehension breaks down. If you are relying on that score to win the game why not run the ball? The worst case out of that play is that you have to run a fourth down play which you are prepared to do anyways. Plus it runs the clock down and gives the Ravens very little opportunity to respond. Instead the 49ers call a pass play that falls incomplete and stops the clock. Now you have to throw on fourth down and even if you convert you are giving the Ravens the ball back with about 90 seconds left and all of their timeouts to get into field goal range to either win or force overtime.
Instead the most awful of all scenarios happens. San Fransisco doesn't score. On fourth down a pass goes incomplete on a pass where there was pass interference. Phil Simms tells me he likes the no call because he doesn't want the referees influencing the ends of games. For the last time in the night I laugh at Simms as I wonder about no calls on obvious penalties influencing the ends of games as much as blowing the whistle. The Ravens get the ball back. The 49ers have to use their final timeout just to stop the clock (that being said, I did like Michael Wilbon's argument on PTI that it had been a loosely called game to that point, thus warranting the no call, and all the refs were doing was being consistent, which is what you want as much as anything). And then... and then the Ravens' punter is allowed to run around in the back of the end zone before taking a safety that, while cutting their lead back to three, takes enough time off the clock to virtually end the game.
The game ends after Ted Guinn cannot run the free kick back. I am still screaming at the TV about the no call and the terrible coaching at the end of the game by what might be my favorite coach in football (This is true becuase even if Jim Harbaugh was a terrible coach, his crazy faces would be enough to make me love him, but he is also very good at what he does.).
And that was about it. Ray Lewis cried as he either enjoyed the Super Bowl win that would end his career or becuase he realized he was too slow to cover Vernon Davis or because he was anticipating a failed attmept at stealing the microphone from Jim Nantz to tell the world about how God loves him more than anyone else. All joking aside, the Ravens played a very good game and were the better of two teams on the field. And win or loss, Joe Flacco probably deserved that MVP. Matt and I enjoy one last beer as we try to deal with the fact that his Super Bowl birthday wasn't so by talking about the TV shows we need to get caught up on (that reminds me....). And then I left disappointed that I didn't get to hear Phil Simms congratulate Haloti NAAAAHAAAAH on his Super Bowl win.
Then the irrational superstitious sports fan in me took over and I became totally at home with not doing a Super Bowl prediction post. The day of the game was also my friend Matt's birthday. Matt is from San Francisco and a 49ers fan having grown up through the glory days of Montana and Rice and Young. I realized that I had written in consecutive weeks that the Niners were the best team in football and yet picked against them. For a number of reasons I decided well before the game that I was going to pick San Fran this time. I still thought they were the best team in the league and was finally ready to right my wrongs in that respect. I was sold on Colin Kapernick. Maybe most importantly I believed that this game would come down to which defense could stop which offense, and the answer to that to me was the Niners, simply because their defense was better, younger and faster than the Ravens. Then there was the least important reason: as a Patriots fan I just don't like the Ravens. I was all ready to put all that out there in the universe and in greater detail, and then realized that I had picked against the Niners despite how I felt about the team and became so irrationally sure that I couldn't pick them and expect them to win. And with it being Matt's birthday, I wanted them to win for him. So I wrote nothing. And when he asked why I wrote nothing I lied and and made up something about being tired and needing to rest to adequately party for the big game just so that I wouldn't undo my irrational belief that not making that pick would keep him from having to watch his team lose the Super Bowl on his birthday.
We were settled in to watch the game, watching the clock on the over/under on the National Anthem. Then the game begins. San Fransisco comes out jittery and goes three and out after a penalty negates their first play, a pass to Vernon Davis. No big deal its just the first drive. After an efficient ensuing drive, Joe Flacco hit's Anquan Boldin up the middle for a touchdown and Phil Simms tells us all that we just seen how the Ravens have had success this year. I suddenly remembered that there was, no matter the outcome, something to enjoy during the game. I could make fun of Phil Simms! Anyone who has watched the the Ravens knows, especially during these playoffs, that they have success when they go deep on the outside, not with Brady-esque precision plays through the middle. Despite all that being said, it was a hell of a pass.
The first half was about as bad as possible. We sat and drank and watched the Ravens route the 49ers to the tune of 21-6. The commercials weren't even good enough to make either of us forget what we were watching. Our only relief was getting to constantly hear Simms compliment the play of Haloti "NAAAHTAAAHHHHH". Matt hid his disdain behind his California cool while scarfing pizzas and Miller Lite's.
Halftime was a welcomed break. We talked about how we were sure that things would change. Kapernick was too exciting to not make something happen. That defense was too good not to come up with some stops. Jim Harbaugh was too good a coach to not make adjustments and get them back in this game. Also we had Beyonce to take our minds off things. The lights and the fires and her spectacular outfit (come on, every dude in America was glad she was wearing that). We even got a wierdly TMZish upskirt shot to start the show and the return of Destiny's other two children to end it.
After the pep talks, Beyonce, a smoke and a fresh beer we were ready to start the second half that we were sure would bring a comeback worthy of being the Atlanta encore. Then Jacoby Jones ran 108 yards in Olympic time. Clearly Matt and I were going to need another fresh beer soon. But as I finished that one I could at least have a laugh as I heard Simms yell "Don't run it out of the endzone!!!!!" during that run back.
All of a sudden the lights went out while it was third and thirteen for the Niners right as the game was about to get way out of hand. I don't go to a lot of comedy shows. But I am sure that anyone who has ever done improv before thought that the CBS football crew was the funniest thing they had ever seen as they struggled to talk for half an hour. Bill Cowher even suggested putting in Alex Smith! Wasn't the whole reason that Kapernick was playing instead of Smith was because of Smith's struggles playing from behind that could be remedied by Kapernick's explosiveness and huge arm? For the record I don't think I really believe that Cowher believed this was the right move. But when you have thirty minutes of dead air to fill you just want a talking point. And he found one.
Thankfully the lights came back on. We were hoping that all of that preaching Shannon Sharpe had done about shifting momentum in favor of the 49ers was true. Despite the fact that they didn't convert on third and thirteen, on their next possession (after a three and out by Baltimore) the change would start to come. San Fransisco marched up the field and capped their first touchdown drive of the day with a play by Michael Crabree that saw two Ravens defenders run into each other instead of Crabtree. Finally there was something to smile about. Then: RAY RICE FUMBLED THE BALL!!!!!!!! Bang bang on a short field and Frank Gore runs in a touchdown. All of a sudden that 28-6 massacre has become 28-20. And there was still five minutes left in the third quarter. Matt's California cool is starting to fizzle as he actually cheers out loud for the first time since I have known him; I know there is hope. Phil Simms probably mentioned a blown play by Haloti NAAAAHTAAAAAH. I think it is somewhere around this point that I wonder why Wilem Defoe is playing the devil in a car ad(by the way, Defoe totally one my award for random celebrity sighting in an ad of which there were a few: Naya Rivera having the red M&M sing Meat Loaf to her, Stevie Wonder and Zoe Saldana doing wierd voodoo on a dudes chair. What was going on!?). Before the end of the quarter David Akers added a field goal that only went through because he got ran into on the first attempt, which he missed, and was able to make the second attempt. After that kind of terrible play by the Ravens, maybe they didn't deserve to win. 28-23.
The fourth quarter ended being as great as one could have hoped. A field goal by the Ravens stretched the lead back to eight. A touchdown run by Kapernick and a failed two point conversion cut the lead to two. Then with just over four minutes left The Ravens get another field goal to take the lead back up to five. Leaving no shortage of drama, the 49ers marched the ball down in side the five year line at the two minute warning. But that is where things finally went too haywire even for this game to continue.
Coming out of the two minute warning, the Niners had to spend a time out to avoid a delay of game penalty, leaving themselves only one more. People have argued the use of this time out. If you take the five yard penalty you still can throw on third and fourth down and if you don't you have two timeouts and whatever time is left to stop the Ravens and go the length of the field. If using that one meant that the Niners were banking on scoring on that drive or they would lose the game. So that was questionable to begin with. But once you use the timeout to keep the ball at third and goal inside the five with over a minute and half to go you accept the situation and make the most of it. So on third down they throw the ball. This is where all comprehension breaks down. If you are relying on that score to win the game why not run the ball? The worst case out of that play is that you have to run a fourth down play which you are prepared to do anyways. Plus it runs the clock down and gives the Ravens very little opportunity to respond. Instead the 49ers call a pass play that falls incomplete and stops the clock. Now you have to throw on fourth down and even if you convert you are giving the Ravens the ball back with about 90 seconds left and all of their timeouts to get into field goal range to either win or force overtime.
Instead the most awful of all scenarios happens. San Fransisco doesn't score. On fourth down a pass goes incomplete on a pass where there was pass interference. Phil Simms tells me he likes the no call because he doesn't want the referees influencing the ends of games. For the last time in the night I laugh at Simms as I wonder about no calls on obvious penalties influencing the ends of games as much as blowing the whistle. The Ravens get the ball back. The 49ers have to use their final timeout just to stop the clock (that being said, I did like Michael Wilbon's argument on PTI that it had been a loosely called game to that point, thus warranting the no call, and all the refs were doing was being consistent, which is what you want as much as anything). And then... and then the Ravens' punter is allowed to run around in the back of the end zone before taking a safety that, while cutting their lead back to three, takes enough time off the clock to virtually end the game.
The game ends after Ted Guinn cannot run the free kick back. I am still screaming at the TV about the no call and the terrible coaching at the end of the game by what might be my favorite coach in football (This is true becuase even if Jim Harbaugh was a terrible coach, his crazy faces would be enough to make me love him, but he is also very good at what he does.).
And that was about it. Ray Lewis cried as he either enjoyed the Super Bowl win that would end his career or becuase he realized he was too slow to cover Vernon Davis or because he was anticipating a failed attmept at stealing the microphone from Jim Nantz to tell the world about how God loves him more than anyone else. All joking aside, the Ravens played a very good game and were the better of two teams on the field. And win or loss, Joe Flacco probably deserved that MVP. Matt and I enjoy one last beer as we try to deal with the fact that his Super Bowl birthday wasn't so by talking about the TV shows we need to get caught up on (that reminds me....). And then I left disappointed that I didn't get to hear Phil Simms congratulate Haloti NAAAAHAAAAH on his Super Bowl win.
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