Sports Talk

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

Sometimes it's helpful to talk things out regarding sports. Today I talked through a realization of why I haven't really missed the NBA playoffs as much as I would have thought. It isn't so much that I have lost my love for watching basketball. And it isn't like my favorite teams have done something unforgivable like the Dodgers did for me and baseball. Instead it is a side product of how the game has changed.

I grew up loving and watching the Showtime Lakers. At the same time I watched other teams of that era with very defined personalities: Celtics (the fundamentals team), the Nuggets (shoot it at all costs), Pistons (basketball as conceived by a hockey player). To a certain extent the team's system overrode the personalities of the players. As the years have progressed that has died off. And the current NBA is not a game of systems, despite the fact that coaches have become superstars along with the players. It is a league of personalities. the teams are basically interchangeable based on the players. This playoffs we saw the likely end of the last 2 system teams: Pistons and Spurs. And even if the Lakers do win it all (which I doubt, I think the title belongs to Lebron James) it just won't feel the same.

Which brings me to why I like football more than any other sport. Because in football no one star dominates how your team plays. Sure if you have Peyton Manning you will focus on the passing game. But that doesn't reflect what your overall team personality is. Certain teams will always play and build their teams a certain way, no matter what. And that makes it more interesting as a fan, to see styles compete and contrast.

So when the NFL draft was on opposite NBA playoffs there was no question which thing I was going to watch: the draft. I liked how both of my teams drafted. I like the Rams solid, no frills draft, because they need to keep rebuilding a talent base. And I like the fact that the Broncos new leadership clearly has a plan and system and drafted players for that. Rather than just grabbing players who didn't really fit what they were doing. And questions like this are more interesting to me than if the Lakers win their playoff series right now.