I write an Indiana Pacers NBA blog, but today is June 30, and not much is going on the world of the Pacers, so to keep myself entertained I'm branching off a bit today.
Thankfully I haven't gotten sucked into the whole "Twilight" craziness. I haven't read any of the books or seen any of the movies. I tend to rebel against what everybody else loves. My biggest fear would be if someone, somehow talked me into sitting down and watching it, and I ended up loving it and getting sucked in.
As a sports fan, there are two reasons you watch. 1. To root for your favorite team. And 2. To marvel at and appreciate the greatest athletes in the world.
As an NBA fan, I was able to enjoy the playoffs without the Pacers, because I like watching Lebron, Kobe and Dwight Howard.
Two things will keep me from rooting for the greatest players. First is if they torture my favorite team.I'm a Pacers' fan so I grew up rooting against Michael Jordan. Most people look back on basketball in the 90s and talk about how great it was to have been able to watch the greatest ever. It wasn't great for me. I hated it. I remember watching the Pacers blow a lead in the last 4 minutes of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Bulls in 98. Those are not good memories.
The second thing that can make me root against a great player is undeserved hype. If I get sick of hearing about a person or a team I will automatically hope they suck. Just like if I watched Twilight; I would watch it and want to hate it.
I have gotten real tired of hearing about Stephen Strasburg the last few months. So naturally when I turned on espn2 to watch him Monday night, I hoped he would get tagged. I really was so annoyed hearing the announcers declare their love for him, and wanted him to get lit up.
He didn't. Actually, he was amazing to watch. He effortlessly threw his fastball 98-100 with movement. His changeup was 90 and dropped off a table. It was astonishing. And I became a fan.
You have to be really good to turn someone into a fan who goes into a game rooting against you. But he did it, because he is that good. It almost makes me mad that I'm typing all this now, because I sound like the people at ESPN that can't stop talking about him.
Whatever. I'm on the bandwagon, and I can't wait to watch him pitch again. Is "Twilight" next?
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