Tag: ESPN (Page 8 of 18)

Predictably, Bill Simmons was not happy about which team was on the losing end of the brilliant, triple-overtime Game 6 of the Boston/Chicago series, but that didn’t stop him from writing an eloquent column about how the series represents everything we look for as sports fans.

We love sports for the simple reason that we never know when this will happen. It rarely does. We watch a lot of crummy games. We watch sporting events that had potential to be great and weren’t. We watch sporting events that almost made it, but one dumb thing happened to screw it up: A foul at the wrong time, a penalty, a two-base error, whatever. We keep watching. We keep hoping. And when everything clicks, it’s blissful. I am hearing from people who haven’t e-mailed me in years. Readers are sending me 700-word e-mails. The thing that keeps jumping out: Even fans without rooting interests have gotten swept up in this series. How can you not?

Think of all the crap we deal with as fans. “Bulls-Celtics 2009” explains why we put up with every story about Clemens and Bonds and Michael Vick and Terrell Owens and everyone else who conspires to make sports less fun. On the same day of Game 6, a story broke that Alex Rodriguez was allegedly seen with human growth hormone. The story was digested and consumed in the same predictably brief cycle: Mainstream Web sites and blogs and message boards and sports radio first, then “PTI” and “Around the Horn,” then “SportsCenter,” then newspapers and magazines. You can either throw yourself into that cycle or look the other way. I am getting older. I just want to watch sports. I have trained myself to look the other way. This stuff clutters my brain, and not in a good way. I just want to watch sports. I just want to watch sports.

This is the best first round series I’ve ever seen. As a Bucks fan, I’m supposed to hate all Chicago teams, but I can’t help but root for these young Bulls. My only worry is that there has been such an emotional buildup in this series that Game 7 can’t possibly live up to expectations. The worst thing that could happen would be for one team to come out and lay an egg.