I never could figure out how to post to the blog. So, I offer this for your consideration. The NBA Regular season starts next Tuesday. As an avid Rockets fan, I am extremely excited. As I was perusing the NBA news I found the following brief article:
It may have only been the end of the exhibition season, but Detroit Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace was in mid-season form.
"I still don't think they (Cavaliers) beat us, we beat ourselves," Wallace said. "And I think we also fell victim to that personal NBA thing where they are trying to make it a world game and get (television) ratings. They wanted to put their darling in there (the NBA Finals) and they did, and look what ended up happening.
"This game ain't basketball anymore, it's entertainment," Wallace said. "It's starting to get like the WWF. There ain't no real wrestling anymore either. It's all fake."
Obviously sports (at least professional sports) are first and foremost about selling tickets and making money, but do they have any other value? A law school colleague of mine stated that pro sports are meaningless and wasteful and compared them to the bread and circuses of ancient Rome, but was in favor of soccer because third world countries need the distraction, further arguing that the developed USA should be beyond such base diversions. I am a follower of the NFL and the NBA and even play fantasy sports (which I will admit is a total waste of time) and do feel that sports have some redeeming qualities. Role model for children, American dream of rags to riches by practicing and being 6' 11" tall or if nothing else an entertaining diversion from the daily grind. Any thoughts?
More to Rasheed's point, does anyone feel that pro sports are fake on any level? Do the Refs cheat (referencing another story about how over half of the NBA referees gamble on the games?)? Did the Broncos only win their Super Bowl so Pat Bowlen could get a new stadium? Does Kobe get away with fouling because people pay to see Kobe play? If they are to any degree fake, does that undermine their value even more or would you still watch? Would you rather a more boring but less fake world of sports or a more entertaining but less "real" world?
Clearly this issue is not as heady as the next presidential candidate or health care reform but for less enlightened folks like myself the NBA (NFL, MLB [Go Rockies!], NHL, Championship curling, and of course Miniature Horse Worlds) bring a little joy into my every day existence and for that I say God Bless Them.
Response From Chris:
I didn't spend yesterday afternoon saying pick or fumble and D-score to the Gators over something that is not real. Is dark matter real, are super massive black holes real, are oil prices real? Kasparof says Putin is manipulating them to keep himself in power and Maher believes him, that's good enough for me!
XXXII and XXXIII were as real as it gets in this plane of existence. After XII, XXI, XXII, and XXIV not to mention the Jaguar debacle of 96, the relief, release, and excitement were more real than anything I've ever experienced. I've watched the BoSox fans describe how 04 felt to them and I tear up and remember being in Port Lavaca shouting at your mother and brother IS IT OFFICIAL, IS IT OFFICIAL. I remember Sean calling me and neither of us knowing what to say. I remember James driving me around standing up in the back of the truck screaming at all of the south Texans HOW BOUT THEM BRONCOS! The Packers lost XXXII because your mother and I were praying confusion and counfoundment on Brett Favre with Pentecostal zeal for 3 quarters, and he was. He made boneheaded plays that amazed the announcers. The things you and I Experienced the next season, a 63 yard field goal, TD getting to 1000 yds in 8 games, the autographs we got, seeing them humiliate the Jags in person at Mile High(sorry Jenn), XXXIII with the glitch in the tape(the size of my foot) when Jason missed a field goal, it doesn't get any better or more real than that.
From dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return but in the middle don't tell me that sports aren't real. By the way Soccer, is he kidding. He gets no cigar and single malt balcony privileges.
Sean's response:
I remember last night sitting and watching the last out of the penant last night. Oddly enough I hadn't read either of Chris' or TJ's emails, but a thought crossed my mind that does so every once in a while. Hmmm...I wonder if this is rigged. It is a scary thought to me. The one thing that stopped me from getting into wrestling past the age of 8 was that I knew it was fake. Not only faked, but completely staged. Oh sure it has its characters. Actually my name for wrestling is "soap opera for guys"....Oops....Just imagine Hulk Hogans voice......"Soap opera for dudes, Brother!!"
When I was 8, or something like that, I remember Hulk Hogan coming to rescue Bob Bacland (SP?) from the Samoan's. At the time that was the greatest thing I had ever seen. He came in and beat up everybody....I was so excited.....He may have even beaten up Bob Bacland....I didn't care. I championed Hulk and his "eye of tiger" soundtrack.....and I still do.....because at the time....I thought it was real. I won't let the wisdom that comes with life to let that spoil.
On the other hand, finding out any sport is fixed would be a tragedy. Wrestling is fake, because it is about drama and not about sportmanship. I mean, how many Colorado Rockies did you see last night hitting Boston Red Sox players in the back with chairs.
All that to get to this point. I think there are exceptions in every sport. An official getting caught betting in backetball, Pete Rose, the Patriots stealing signals, etc.. There are going to be people that try to bend the system to their benefit. It is when they get caught that you know the system is working and that in fact these sports are ligitimate.
My father-in-law thinks every sport is rigged. What always gets me is that he still watches? I won't even argue with the man anymore, because I would be tempted to do so brandishing a shotgun and bazooka (no not the gum)......Saying....."Come on....make that dumb ass point one more f-ing time....I dare you....I double dare you..Motherf-er"
OK the point is sports is so great, because real life and things that happen over the course of the season are far more interesting than you can ever make-up.
The Giants and Dolphins could have just made spectacle of the London game yesterday by just faking it and just scoring 100 points each. You know what though, it was spectacle and it wasn't even a good game. It was already a spectacle before they even stepped onto the field, because of what the NFL means in sports.
Sports means a lot to me. There is no doubt in my mind that it is all real and legit. Of course there are those exceptions, but those exceptions and how they are dealt with are what keep sports so great. I mean, how would you even going about faking 100 years of sport anyway.
Oh, on the Kobe. There are those that get away with things, because they are good at it. Kobe is a quicker than any normal person, including most referree's, would ever hope to be. So of course he gets away with some stuff. So did Jordan......People come to see these awesome creatures perform feats what we would find impossible. NFL, NBA, MLB......These, argueably are the best athletes in the world. You put great teams, coaches and players together and that is all the drama you need.
Rasheed Wallace needs to get down and thank God that we lives in a world were he can be reveared for his size and skill. Sure it's entertainment, but he doesn't exactly have to face lions anymore.
OK final thought......Entertainment. OK. Here in the US hockey is not incredibly popular. Not like the other three anyway. The networks do a great job or really personallizing sports so we can identify with the players. Hockey does a horrible job of doing this....Always has. Plus I can never find the puck. I off looking some where else and someone is scoring a goal. There is a sport that needs some added drama!
Did any of that make any sense....Well they are just a collection of my thoughts on the matter.
Oh and I didn't get to watch Bill Maher yet.....But now I have to watch it!
Is dark matter real, are super massive black holes real, are oil prices real?
Yes, yes and no.....Although the last is hardest to prove. This would be a great discussion by the way.....Can something exist...even if we can't see it? Well with help of xray and radio telescopes we can see blackholes. Dark matter had been shown to exist because the things we can see, interact with it.
My question is....If you are able to manipulate a gravitational field to the point where you can create a worm hole.....How would you be able to determine where you end up? The current theory is that you must create a beginning and an end. That you must create a place and time where your want the worm hole to end up and than use a strong gravitational field like the sun to destort gravity to the point where can create a wormhole back to that original place.
Well that sounds kind of boring.
My personal theory is this......Imagine space and time as a web. If you create a gravitational field so tremendous that you can actually use the web of the space time
continum to direct where you will end up, by manipulating the gravity, as well the other laws of physics. It is hard to put it into words, but if you pushed your finger to strech a spiders' web, and you used the protection of the web to touch another point on the web.
Here's an interesting theory that really helps explain a lot about the physics of the universe. It is a debated theory, but a good one.
String Theory
My best example of this is the World Wide Web. We use portals such as Google and Yahoo to find things. We use them to manipulate the electronic universe and go to places that match what we want to see. I think on a far grander scale this could be accomplished. I think we are probably at least a couple hundred years away from being able to do this, but I think we are getting to the point technologically that we may be able to start approaching it.
More thoughts.....Sorry.
See ya!
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