Paper and Pen

So I'm now writing for the sports section in UB's newspaper "The Spectrum." I figured I'd put up my first opinion column here (assuming that it gets printed)... it's my first draft so it might undergo a few minor changes, but this is the gist of it (I haven't given it a title yet):


I never feel like I have anybody to talk basketball with anymore.

No, not college basketball, since many people are completely prepared to talk about UB, Syracuse or Duke hoops. But here in Western New York, where I’ve spent all of my nearly twenty-one years, you are more likely to hear the word ‘sunscreen’ during the winter than you are to hear the letters ‘N-B-A’.

I don’t have the official numbers for this, but I have to imagine Buffalo is one of the few cities in the U.S. where NHL fans outnumber NBA fans. I feel like every time I want to talk about how the pick-and-roll revitalized Chris Duhon’s career, I have to hear eight conversations about Derek Roy first.

I understand the fundamental reason behind the lack of interest: we don’t have a team. The Buffalo Braves left The Aud in 1978 for San Diego, who later moved to Los Angeles to become the dreadful Clippers. Nearby Rochester had the Royals until 1957, but they grew up to become the Sacramento Kings. Because of these departures, Buffalo’s most local NBA team is in Toronto, a city that has made Bills fans quite uncomfortable over the past year or so.

And in general, I understand why a person might think that college basketball is more exciting than its professional counterpart. Admittedly, college basketball crowds create an atmosphere that is far superior to the watered-down corporate crowds attending NBA matchups. It really is fun to see an entire section of students excitedly jump around in unison for an entire game.

But the game itself isn’t any more exciting. In fact, I’ll take the NBA’s style of play any day of the week. In comparison to college players, the professional elite play more fast-paced, are more athletic, and shoot for higher percentages from any given spot on the floor.

And don’t even tell me that they don’t play defense in the NBA. One of the beauties of the league is that at any point two of the league’s biggest stars, such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, could be locked up in a game-long battle for supremacy.

The great thing about basketball is that there is a balance between those aforementioned individual battles and teamwork. Not only do you have to be better than the guy guarding you, but you also have to help your teammate win his battle also. The amount of improvised strategy involved in a single basketball possession is astounding.

But my favorite thing about the NBA is that any moment could be a great one. At any point it only takes one man to drain a 60-foot jumper or windmill a dunk between his legs.

The league has commercials that state “NBA: Where Amazing Happens.” And it’s true, any given game can contain a little bit of something amazing.

So do yourself a favor: Just watch the games, pick a favorite team, and pray that they don’t hire Isaiah Thomas.

Making Some Footprints

I'm starting to get used to this whole blogging deal. I figure I should at least put something in every day. A lot of the time I figure I have nothing to say... but I seem to BS at least one entertaining thing each time.

Anyways, I spent most of this Christmas Day watching basketball. Orlando - New Orleans was a flat-out blowout (I slept during three quarters of it)... but Phoenix - San Antonio and Boston - Lakers were both very entertaining. Overall, they picked some pretty damn good games for this holiday.

I got Guitar Hero World Tour for Christmas today. Luckily, my 360 is completely fucked, so I couldn't even enjoy the gift. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait a couple weeks to get back to Buffalo. Regardless, I found a way to remain jolly despite this tragedy.

Most importantly, today I decided to start compiling songs for my (now) annual Best Songs of the Year list (which will be awesome, just check out my 2007 list roughly half a page down). Something strange happened while I was doing this, though. I went through the entire year saying stuff like "music has sucked this year" or "nothing good has come out". Totally wrong. This year's list is gonna be awesome. There were so many great songs this year... I forgot half of them were even in 2008. Needless to say, look for the list very soon, probably right after the new year (since I will be spending the first few days of the new year completely forgetting about the old year).

Holler back,
Jay

2010

Never ever have I been so sick of a year that hasn't even happened yet. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch 34 seconds of NBA coverage on ESPN and you'll know. So far the 'Please Seriously STFU' sports topics of 2008 have been (in order):

1. Brett Favre
2. 2010
3. Roger Clemens
4. Brett Favre
5. Pac Man Jones


The Knicks suck. Seriously they're only 7-8 and I'm way more sick of watching them than last year. These are going to be two extremely painful years. Tim Thomas might be the worst, laziest player I've ever seen in my life. By himself he's worth about negative ten points a game. The worst part about watching them is that they are in D'Antoni's system, which is supposed to be a quick, exciting offensive system. The problem is that they get no ball movement and that they're missing a key component of making this work... NOBODY ON THE FUCKING TEAM CAN SHOOT!

I swear every episode of MTV's True Life should be called "True Life: I'm a Bitch". Except for the disease episodes. That's not their fault.

And Cricket commercials need to die. Or get slightly less busted female appearances.

Yeah as one can tell I'm in a great mood. I came back home for a few days and I have very little internet connection. This is causing me to go generally insane.

I'll be a little more clear-headed tomorrow I think. Or whenever I get back to this. HOV!