I’m sitting around watching the first game of the Spurs / Suns series, witnessing a completely out of character Tim Duncan draining a crazy clutch 3-pointer (…Tim Duncan behind the line???) against the Suns, and I came to accept the thought that’s been lingering on the outside edges of my brain ever since LSU went 5 for 5 on fourth downs against Florida…
This has been the best season in sports I have ever witnessed, ever.
For you geeks looking for something to hate on – I know you’re out there – I’m defining a “sports” season under the following rules:
- It begins with the opening kickoff of the first NFL preseason (yeah thats right, I’m including the preseason) and ends with the final bucket of the NBA finals.
- Now, I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not that I don’t like Baseball. I watch the fuck out of it because there’s nothing else to watch in the summer. But I just can’t consider it a real sport – if a fat-ass like David Ortiz is an athlete, I’m a world class sprinter. I really just see it as something you’d play pre, maybe post barbeque. Everyone has a fun time without really breaking a sweat or upsetting a stomach, or doing anything very intensive with a body at all. It’s kind of like watching a more involved version of Badminton. That said, I still do watch Baseball whenever it’s on TV, have a fantasy team, and think that A-Rod’s a piece of shit.
- International Sports don’t count. AMERICUHH, fuck yeah.
To reiterate, Baseball’s not a real sport. So let’s go over the arguments available for the best year in sports, the 2007-2008 season, ever:
NCAA Football had by far it’s most compelling season ever. No team was ever insusceptible to the upset, and the two teams chosen to play the (now perennially useless) National Championship game was never certain until the very last week of regular season play. Upset after upset after crazy upset – starting with Michigan losing to Appalachian, and ending with West Virginia, on the berth of being the top ranked team at the end of a long season, losing to Pitt. Of course, such an uncertain regular season leading into a boring, predictable (save for the Michigan / Florida bowl game) bowl season BEGGED for a playoffs rather than the financial empires competing, rather than the teams that play the game, in a BCS Bowl “series.”
NCAA Basketball had one of it’s most compelling freshmen classes ever in the wake of the now years old rule holding high schoolers back from entering the pros immediately. There was more talent coming into the tournament than in recent memory, which was well on display with a final four containing all four #1 seeds playing against each other. And what a final game – exciting as it was, we really learned that John Calipari is not the great coach that powered Memphis to a one lost season, and we learned that Derek Rose is the kid who took a good team and made them great.
NFL Football had in my opinion, it’s best season ever. Yeah, ok, I’m a Giants fan. But what made the season so great (I love and hate saying this all at the same time) was the New England Patriot’s perfect regular season. They, in my opinion, were the best team to ever play football for a year in the NFL. The way they lit up their opponents in the first and for portions of the second half of the season was amazing to watch. And then, their last opponent in the regular season FINALLY had their QB come together, and as a team, they proved that anyone can be beaten. From the Patriot’s perfection rose Eli Manning’s poise and the unthinkable truly happened. That cold $300 I won on the game wasn’t so bad either.
NHL Hockey was fun even for me, a casual hockey fan at best. I’m buying what the NHL is selling – and that’s the fact that Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are two of the greatest athlete’s I’m gonna see all year. All I can say is hockey has definitely bounced back from it’s recent obscurity. Considering it competes with the NFL and NBA consistently, this is impressive to me. Imagine if they didn’t play baseball when no other sports were going on… where would that fan base’s true alliances lie?
NBA Basketball had the best playoff race ever in the west coast. The math says it all – the top 6 teams in the west within 2 games of each other – all SIX of them. And on the opening day of the playoffs, we see a 2-OT thriller between the now re-occurring second round match up of powerhouses Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs – in the very first round. In the east coast, we have the emergence of a man – Lebron James – and the possible daybreak of an old Boston Dynasty re-born. This normally would piss me off, but any Boston team that only has one white player on it is OK by me.
Now, I’m gonna sit back and soak in the best Playoffs I’m ever going to see – and I’d suggest you do the same. The season’s almost over here.
If you don’t share my opinions, I’m sure I won’t have to do any convincing of this,
- Hey man, I’d do her.
