The National Pastime of Texas

Just when I said there would be no excuses, I came up with a doozie. I was walking the dog Tuesday morning, and we hit a patch of black ice on the sidewalk (it was about 40 degrees outside at the time but the ice was in a shady spot), and I took a nasty fall. I still feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, but I figured it was as good a time as any to write about my love of football since this is probably how football players feel most of the time. Of course, it hasn’t helped that my right wrist is still pretty banged up and my brain is slightly jostled, but I feel the need to play through the pain.

My introduction to football came relatively late. Growing up in southern California, football really didn’t seem like part of the culture, even though I grew up in Los Angeles county when the Raiders and Rams were still in LA. I can remember my dad watching Monday night football (and games on Sunday), but it did not seem like something “we” cared about. Looking through my old yearbooks, it turns out my school even had football teams (and the boy I had a crush on played on one), but that was news to me. I started to take an interest in the game right around the time my father started working “in Dallas.” We still lived in California, but I grew curious about the things I associated with Texas: cowboys, football, and Dallas Cowboys football.

The first Super Bowl I remember watching and following was Super Bowl XXVII. The Cowboys were not my favorite team (I still had some slight resentment towards the Lone Star state), but I was fascinated to watch them have their way with the Bills. I was too young and new to the game to realize that just a few years earlier, the Cowboys had been absolutely atrocious. As far as I knew, they were the best team in the country and that was just the way it was. By the start of the next season, we were living in the “mid-cities” between Dallas and Fort Worth. Although the Cowboys did not get off to the greatest start that year, they started looking like the Best Team in the Country again, and I began to follow them in earnest. They were exciting to watch, and were a constant topic of conversation at school. When one of our teachers, Mrs. Smith, was expecting a baby that January, negotiations began to get her to name her son Emmitt.

Speaking of Emmitt, I think the moment that sealed the deal for me was the January 1994 Giants game. I was supposed to be finishing a social studies report on Spain but kept sneaking into the living room to watch the game with Dad. Smith was playing with a separated shoulder and still had over 200 yards rushing. The game went overtime and gave the Cowboys the division title (over the Giants). And, of course, the Cowboys went on to beat the Bills in the Super Bowl again that year.

Although the “Three-Peat” effort was derailed when the Cowboys lost their rematch against the 49’ers in the Conference Championship, the 1994 season was still an exciting time to be a football fan in north Texas. And the “Three-Out-of-Four-Peat” (no, I am not making that up. I couldn’t if I tried) victory in Super Bowl XXX kept things going. Of course, by the 1997 season, the Cowboys had lost much of their luster, with some horrible 5-11 seasons as well as a handful of potentially promising seasons that ended with quick exits in the playoffs. I’d already gotten sucked in, though, and was ready for whatever came my way Sunday, whether or not the Cowboys were imploding.

Basketball Love

I have taken a very, very long sabbatical from my blog, but it's time to stop making excuses. Of course, I didn't pick the best time to get back into it. Football season just ended and spring training is still a few weeks off, leaving me with basketball, hockey (which I know almost nothing about), and… the Olympics? And the NBA is on pause for an All-Star break. I’ve never been a big fan of All-Star Games, so I am not totally over my Blogger’s Block. I've never been a big fan of All Star Games, so I am not totally over my Blogger's Block.
So, my idea to bring inspiration back is to get back to why I started doing this in the first place: why I love sports. And to stretch it out into a few posts, I decided to write one for each sport, starting with basketball.
I still need to get Bill Simmons's new Book of Basketball, but I will probably have to wait for paperback (and somebody else to buy it for me). I'm sure that would really remind me about why I love(d) basketball. He certainly can always remind me why I wanted to write about sports. There's no chance ESPN is looking for a Sports Girl, is there?
Although the NBA All-Star game is in my backyard tonight, I can’t say that holds much excitement for me. I’d rather watch a spring training baseball game than an All-Star game or the Pro Bowl. 
But what do I love about basketball? Since my love for basketball peaked around the same time as my fascination with the Late Show with David Letterman*, I'll put together the Top Ten Things I Love About Basketball:
10. The broadcasting: I really love to hate basketball play-by-play and commentary. As often as I find myself snarkily talking back to the TV, though, I must admit that the game would not be as fun to watch without the sometimes mind-boggling commentary. And if possible, I love Charles Barkley even more behind the desk than on the court… or is it love to hate?
9. Team play: Yeah, there are superstar players that are seen as larger than their teams or even the league, but, in my humble opinion, basketball is a game that has to be won by a team and cannot just be dominated by a single player. In baseball, a pitcher can single-handedly win a game (at least in the national league… and he would still probably need two hands), but even when a basketball player dominates a game with a 40-, 50-, or 60-point performance, that's almost never enough. It's not necessarily enough to even guarantee a win.
8. The pace: Baseball is my favorite sport, so I'm not one of those ADD people who can't watch a game where the score might not change for a half hour. Still, there is something to be said for the pace of a good basketball game. Of course, I do prefer a game with some defense over a Phoenix-style game with over 200 points scored. I like that basketball is one sport where the adage that 'no lead is ever safe' is almost always true. Sure, I've seen nine-run lead blown in baseball and football teams come back from 21-point deficits, but in basketball, double-digit leads can melt away almost every night (if not into losses, at least into surprisingly close finishes).
7. Texas basketball: I'm talking about the state here and not UT. Growing up in the DFW area during the lowest of the lows for the Mavericks, it was exciting to watch the Rockets and then the Spurs win some titles and bring some basketball honor to the Lone Star state. Of course, now the Spurs are something of rivals to the Mavericks, but I'd still rather see them win a title than the Lakers any day.
6. Olympic basketball: I, for one, love how much basketball has spread internationally. As much as I loved watching the Dream Team in the Barcelona games, in a way, I find it almost as exciting that Argentina knocked out Team USA and went on to win the gold in Athens. It's not that I'm unpatriotic, but with all the American dominance (Team USA has won 13 of 17 gold medals and medalled in every Olympiad not boycotted), I think it's good to see some competition from countries in the southern and eastern hemispheres.
5. Michael Jordan: I may have other personal favorite players, but I grew up in the Jordan era, and he shaped my vision of what it meant to play basketball. Needless to say, when I got the number 23 jersey in sixth grade, I was psyched.
4. The rebound: There is something glorious about the rebound, in my opinion. It's unlike anything else in sports. The quick changes in momentum, the second-chance points, the aggression…
3. The playoffs: I am not one of those fans who complains that the length and structure of the NBA playoffs make the regular season meaningless. The length of the series usually ensures that the better (if not the higher-seeded team) team wins, and a previously mediocre team doesn't usually blaze through the playoffs on a hot streak. Of course, there are flukes like in 2007 when the Mavericks had far and away the best record in the NBA and lost in the first round to Don Nelson's 8-seed Golden State Warriors. And the Finals, beyond the cheesy marketing, are almost always entertaining, even if your team has been done for weeks.
2. The NCAA Tournament: I remember filling out my first bracket in the fifth grade. I've never won a bracket pool, and I've never even been a huge college basketball fan, but I'm certainly not alone in succumbing to the mass hysteria that is March Madness.
1. The Mavericks: my Mav love has dissipated in the last few years, like so many youthful romances. Since I moved to DFW, I have witnessed the Mavericks transformed from a team that lost 71 games in a season to a team that went to the NBA Finals (winning a total of 74 games) and had a 67-win season. Without dwelling on the fate of that 67-win team, I saw the hapless losers gradually morph into a championship-caliber team… and then settle into a slightly above-average team. And for the record, I like Mark Cuban. I may not agree with everything he does, but I think he's a good owner for the team and the fans.

 
For the record, I have a women's ice hockey game on while I write this. USA! USA!
* This probably shows my age (or lack thereof). More importantly, Dave's move to CBS roughly coincided with my family's move to the Central time zone. So, I didn't see much of Dave at 12:35 when I was in third grade, but once I was in fifth grade (and his show started two hours earlier), his show was required viewing for me and my friends.