For some reason, I've been completely uninterested in the NBA playoffs so far, which -- if you consider how much NBA hoop I watched this season on NBA League Pass -- is somewhat like reading the entire Chronicles of Narnia and then discarding the book right before...
Okay, you got me. I've never read the Chronicles of Narnia, but I feel pretty certain that something suspenseful or noteworthy happens at the end so as to make my analogy work. Yes, for whatever reason, I have not been tuned in at all. I've found myself more concerned with meaningless April baseball games than I have been with a slew of NBA games I should find not only meaningful, but exciting.
Which leads me to wonder: am I being exposed this postseason as an NBA phony? Have I become the guy who, as a result of profound disillusionment with his home team (the Atlanta Hawks), only follows the NBA to track the progress of the guys on his fantasy team (and of course see the occasional ridiculous highlight)? Have I become that guy? It depresses me just to think about it.
But before I go full-scale into flogging myself out of pure shame, there have been signs that I'm still an NBA fan, tried and true. Well, actually just one:
The other day, I overheard two middle-aged men, who clearly thought themselves to be sports experts, talking about the NBA and how much they hated it. One of them said he probably watched 15 minutes of NBA basketball over the course of an entire season. The other one lamented that he's sometimes forced to watch the highlights because they show them on SportsCenter (really? How could they!) To which the other one responded: "To me, the NBA is just bad basketball. Nothing more."
And at that, I'd had it. The only thing keeping me from launching into a full-scale ninja attack complete with num chucks and throwing stars is that a) I'm not a ninja, and b) I'm pretty sure it's not legal to do that. But the fact was, I was peeved. The NBA's honor had been shamed by these two lummoxes, and I was not going to stand for it. Of course, I guess in a way I did, because I didn't say anything, but you get the idea.
The point is, I found myself involuntarily defending the NBA. I did care about the league after all. And as the conference semifinals approach, I find myself waking up to the excitement of the playoffs. My pulse is slowly rising from a flatline on its way to its normal frenzied rate. Tonight I found myself watching the closing moments of the Hornets-Heat game and not caring that it was two teams who wouldn't reach 170 points between them. It was heated basketball, it was intense and exciting, and I, the NBA fan, was back.
