The Tip-Off

This had to happen. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, and so is the internet. I'll tell you this: no one is waiting for another moron blogging all of his random thoughts about the NBA. I understand this, but again, it had to happen. I've been bottling up this feeling for too long.
You know, when you're in love with that cute girl you've know for ages, and that finally becomes something, you want the world to know about it. Who cares if anyone listens? As long as you can get it out, all will be good.

My love for the NBA started in the early nineties. Growing up in The Netherlands, in a small village, your friends either play soccer or do judo. I'm dead serious. Judo? I never understood that, nor have I tried it. A former colleague of mine shared the same feeling, wondering why two guys in their pyjama's are "fighting", and after a while one dude is on top of the other, and he wins. That's not fighting, that's not a sport, that just a random Saturday night which involves red wine, lubricant, and two people who both are able to grow beards. And soccer? I just didn't care about that.

So on one day I was at a friend's place and he had a basketball. I think I was 11 years old. We were watching a Bulls-Blazers Finals game. Not live, because due to the time difference that game was played in the middle of the night (I can't write "in the middle of the night" and not sing the Billy Joel song). Michael Jordan? Who? Playing against who? Clyde Drexler? Hm? Since we were young and we didn't have the patience to watch an entire game, we went outside and played some basketball ourselves. And for the first time in my life: I liked a sport. Not that I was a fat little boy, but before that I hardly did anything outside. Yup, I was one pale kid.

In 1992 you had the Dream Team wrecking havoc in the beautiful city of Barcelona. This provided me the opportunity to learn about the greats of the game: MJ, Magic, Bird, Pippen, Barkley, and all those guys who demolished every team who happened to stand in their way. After that, with a little help from CNN and some basketball magazines, I tried to follow the NBA as much as I could. Not an easy task, because there are only two televised games per week over here. To compare it with the US: to watch those games it's sort of a pay-per-view thing in The Netherlands. Long story, too boring. Of course I was a teen back then, and couldn't afford that. In 1999 I was financially able to watch those two games every week. I mentioned the time difference earlier, so watching a game meant setting your alarm clock at 3 a.m. and be kinda tired at the office the next day. Hell, I didn't care. The channel showed the same game the next day too, but I needed to see it live, at 3 a.m., and checking all the other boxscores on the internet the next day on NBA.com - that's love in my opinion.

Yes, I was a Bulls fan during the nineties. My favorite player in the League was Scottie Pippen, but in 1997 a young and interesting team, called the New Jersey Nets, grabbed my attention. Sam Cassel, Kerry Kittles, Kendall Gill, Keith Van Horn and Jayson Williams - I thought they would take over the East in the next few years. They got their asses whooped by the Bulls during the '98 playoffs, but I had hope. And man was I wrong. Year after year they started to get worse and worse. Maybe it was the coach (John Calipari), and later on career-ending injuries (Williams), or failed expectations (Van Horn). Bringing in Stephon Marbury didn't really help either, although he played pretty good, the team was far too mediocre to make some noise in the Eastern Conference. And suddenly it was 2001. Jason Kidd arrived on the scene, and with Van Horn, Kittles, a young man athletic forward called Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson the Nets went all the way to the 2002 NBA Finals. Although being sweeped by the Lakers, New Jersey proved their appearance in the Finals wasn't a fluke, and battled against the mighty San Antonio Spurs in the 2003 Finals, but after six hard fought games the Spurs grabbed the trophy, and sent the Nets home.

So here we are, in 2007. My interest in the NBA is still sky high, but there isn't a single person over here who shares that feeling, so it was time to vent, time to release my thoughts on the League, on its players, on whatever the hell is going on at any giving time during the season (and off-season). Because when the season starts, I know I have to get up again when the rest of the country is sleeping (or drinking, or having sex, or both), sitting through another game which last for 2,5 hours, another 48 minutes of actual basketball, hoping for that one moment during the game when you think: "Fuck yeah, glad I set my alarm clock tonight!"