The Return of the Fans

For many sports fans, especially those that care about hockey, this is the best part of the sports year. Nightly sets of important, pressurized, playoff games in both sports day after day. It was the most return to sports moment of last year in late Summer when the NBA and NHL playoffs were there, but there was of course one giant elephant in the room in the fact of who wasn't in the room. The empty bubbles were sanitary, were quiet, were special in their uniqueness but still a little less than. That's no more.

When the Stanley Cup Playoffs started a week back, coincidentally right after the nation received new COVID guidance, we knew we were entering something special. The first game was in Washington, with not the biggest crowd but lives fans rocking the red and cheering on an OT winner. It really took of the next day with games in Florida, with about 12,000 fans. That game, a fired up, high-octane, back-and-forth game with countless hits and skirmishes was the moment it became real: this is the true return of sports.

There is still a little bit of me worreid that we've moved too fast, that going from barely anyone in attendance to 10,000+ in many arenas (we'll get to the 15,000 in MSG in a bit) is a bit rushed. It could have adverse effects. But for now, it also gives us heaven. For so long I couldn't wait to watch a sports game with fans again. We got bits and pieces of it during the MLB World Series and throughout the NFL season. But even the most crowded game looked sparse. There were a few moments, like the few Bills fans in attendance cheering on a pick-six, but nothing like this.

The NBA was able to do a decent job of their bubble setting, putting their floor on almost a stage with flashy visuals on each side. It was easy to not notice empty seats, but its also so easy to notice the filled one now. The story of the first couple days of NBA playoffs was the incredible scene in Madison Square Garden. Sure, some of that was it being the first Knicks playoff game in eight years, with a legitimately good, tough team. But it was also the return of New Fucking York. The city that was hit harder than any other large metro earlier than any as well. New York was a ghost town, written off. It's back, and so are the damn Knicks.

But to me the scenes in hockey arenas have really brought me back. The roar of a goal, any goal. We've had more OT moments this postseason as well. That incredible passion, evern in places like Florida, Carolina, Nashville - these non-traditional markets are also not coincidently the ones that lifted more restrictions and allowed more fans. The first chants, the first pounding of the glass, the first goal horn and goal song. All of it so pure, so incredible.

I remember months back when we were going throuigh the darkest period as a country over the winter, there were these shots from New Zealand cricket or rubgy matches with full stands. They earned that, earned it by having imposed far stricter, for more intrusive restrictions than America ever did. Well, it is our turn now. We didn't earn this in the same way - but we did in a sense that we took to vaccinations (well, at least we did). We waited our chance to return back to indoor arenas, but man are we taking full advantage of being allowed back in.

I enjoyed sports prior to these playoffs in the past year because it was such a welcome escape, a slight return to something normal, to remind of what we lost from March through June. At the time it was such an incredible feeling, but given we have the counter example now of the NHL playoff games in Canada still being played in empty arenas, it is so stark a difference to have fans back.

The games are better, the experience so much fuller, the feelings so much more joyous. It's a different world we live in  now. We aren't done with the pandemic, not by a long shot. There's a lot more to get done, be it reinvigorating the vaccination program, opening up borders, feeling OK to go to a crowded bar. But getting sports in this way, with thousands of jacked up fans ready to shout their lungs out, is a crucial, far more meaningful than expected, step back to normal.

The Problem with the Play-In

I have problems with teh NBA's play-in. That said, my problem's with it have nothing to do with why many others do. There was some noise, a very loud minority, towards the end of the season saying how unfair it was that 72 games (82 in a normal season) would potentially be undone by one or two games, how unfair it was to the poor little #7 seed, and all that jazz. Personally, miss me with all of that. The play-in season was fantastic in how it revolutionized the end of the NBA season.

The play-in tournament did well to NFL-ize the NBA playoffs, making the seeding within their bracket way more important than home court. There was the race for #6 (to avoid the play-in), the race for #8 (to avoid needing to win two games), and of course the race for the #10 seed, keeping a lot of terrible teams alive long past they ever would've in the past. Of course, ironically the NFL is actively going away from this with only having a bye for the #1 seed.

But what we're now realizing is whether its the format with double-elimination for the better teams, or the fact that some of these are, at the end of the day, the 10th best team in their conference, the games themselves in teh playoffs are not set-up for success. This may very much change tomorrow and Friday, when the loser of the 7v8 and winner of 9v10 play each other in what truly is a do or die game, but guess what? That's two games out of six.

What we realize is the 9v10 is a damn 9v10 game - like really who cares. The winner isn't even in the playoffs yet. That Pacers v Grizzlies game was dreadful. The Spurs v. Grizzlies game was fine (it was somewhat close) but again, one of these teams was 33-39. The Lakers v Warriors game was so hyped, but guess what? Everyone assumes the loser will just blast the Grizzlies anyway. And this is about as big as this game will ever be, with a combination of covid and injuries putting two teams into the 7v8 that shouldn't really be there. It won't get better, and it still wasn't all that great.

I don't know if there's an easy fix. I think we can live with a cognitive dissonance of the play-in being a huge boon for the regular season but all in itself pretty meaningless when you actually get to the games. For next year, though, when we're left with probably not a LeBron James & Anthony Davis v Stephen Curry game, I fear these 7v8 games won't be all that meaningful either.

The only fix I can really think of is one the NBA would absolutely never go to, which is just have 7v10 and 8v9, single elimination. Again, no way the NBA agrees, and if they do there is some credence to the idea of how unfair it is for the higher seed teams. And yes, I don't think a game of Lakers v Spurs wouldn've been any more close than the bad games we've seen elsewhere in teh play-in, but the spectre of single elimination, especially when a good team is potentially on the chopping block, is just more interesting. No one cares that the terrible Spurs or Hornets are now out of the playoffs, but if there was a chance the Lakers wouldn't be because of one game, or Celtics even, it would be a lot better.

I may be overreacting to two bad games, but the little care I felt around this hypefest that was Lakers v Warriors defintieyl does indicate something a bit soulless about this set-up. I'm sure I'll feel adequate emotional connection with the game on Friday where the loser plays the Grizzlies, but for what cause. It will be interesting to see next year, where almost inevitably we won't have a Lakers-type team in the play-in, if the imapct it had on the regular season remains.

In the end, the play-in did have a significant effect improving the end of the regular season. That might be invaluable for the NBA, a sport which in past year's really struggled with avoiding general malaise late in seasons. That was so limited this year, but was also bouyed by great races further up the playoff field, something that would have been there even without the play-in structure. But when it ends up with some soulless games that have so little 'playoff atmosphere' and delays the actual start of the actual playoffs by a nice 3-4 days, I do wonder if it's all worth it.

Re-Post: The Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 15: The 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs Out West

I'm a late night owl. I can probably count the times I've slept before the clock turns over to a new day on one hand each year. On weekends, my normal sleeping time is between 2-3 AM. On weekdays, between 12-1. I don't get up too late (if I get up past 10AM on weekends, I'm generally upset at myself). I don't know where this started, but I think some part of it has to do with being a sports fan, always jealous of my friends on the West Coast, who were watching games long before my childhood self had his head hit the pillow.

As a child of the 90's, I grew up with the newspaper being my daily sports bible, and I always hated the fact that the West Coast games ended too late to get the scores printed in the next days paper. Given that I have lived most of my life in the internet age, and today can cue up any baseball or hockey game with HD quality on my computer, this seems almost ancient. But it was true.

Prior to 2008, the Western Conference Playoffs were always some mythical experience that started at bedtime, and ended way afterwards, I may have snuck a few games in here or there, but never enough to really enjoy San Jose, or Anaheim, or LA, or Vancouver, or Calgary, or so many others. In 2008 that all changed, to disastrous effects which I'll get too.

I've written about 2008 a few times, whether it being my learning to love soccer wholeheartedly in Euro 2008, or my unabashed joy of the 2008 NFL Season. But the other aspect of that magical year was me watching those night games, the Calgary's, the Anaheim's, the San Jose's, and all the rest. By May or so, 2008, I had finished my AP Exams, which essentially meant I finsihed those classes in school. I had a license. My parents decided to first travel to the Balkans, and then to India. I was alone at home (something I mentioned in the Euro 2008 post). Some would say that this was iraresponsible of them, but truly, I was the only irresponsible one, watching NHL playoff games past midnight on what were ostensibly school nights.

I can picture it now, me sprawled out on my family room couched, all the lights off, with the playoffs in Calgary or Vancouver on the TV, on what was at the time the 'Vs' Network. I knew little of these Western Teams, aside from my pull for the Sharks. But what I quickly learned was the game was a little bit different out West - faster, more skilled, more loud, more exciting.

The Goal Horns are deeper, punching the air with bellowing pitch. The crowds are just as good, if not better. Nowadays, every team does the 'have all fans wear the same color' gag, but it was started by teams out West during this era, the Flames and Oilers and so many more.

I have no idea if the hockey was better, but just the time itself made it more exciting. At the time, I had to technically get up around 6:45 to get to school by 7:40. But that didn't stop me from enjoying every second. If I wasn't alone at home sprawled on the couch, I was on my bed watching a stream of a game at a time when watching a stream meant shaking hands with the computer virus devil, and closing every ad and pop-up and rapid-fire pace. Streams are so much better now, but I do miss the old-days of vagabond sites that forced you to learn which of the three 'x' buttons was real.

Let's get to the disastrous effect. In 2008, my school band, of which I was the tuba player for (a story for another day), had a concert tour to Virginia in the May period. My parents were vacationing in the Balkans. I was supposed to go to my neighbors house the next morning around 7:00 for them to drop me off to school to catch the bus to Virginia. I decided to watch the playoffs the night before, once again sprawled out on the couch - never leaving that position until late AM.

I awoke to my neighbor in my house, yelling (more our of concern) for me to get up, woken to a stupor - one of the last 'woken up in a stupor' moments that had no alcohol involved in my life. Apparently I overslept various alarms, various phone calls. Somehow, my neighbor reached my parents in Croatia, who gave her the garage door code. I was late, probably reached around 8:00 instead of 7:30 - though I will say was definitely not the last person to arrive to teh school that day - maybe someone else was watching late night hockey too.

I can say surprisingly little about the 2008 playoffs out West. I do know the Sharks beat the Flames in seven games, a time when they were still seen as choking chokers (something they would skid into the next round losing in six to Dallas). The Avalanche beat the Wild, something that was fairly common back in teh day. The Stars beat the defending champion Ducks. I remember little about the actual games. I have no idea which late game it was that I was watching the night I should have been resting before our band trip.

One forgotten aspect that increased the joy of watching these games was that at the time since NBC was reticent to put any money into the NHL coverage, most of the late games were simulcasts of Canadian broadcasts, be it CBC or TSN. They had Canadian announcers, Canadian music, Canadian joy of hockey, most importantly. It was a great indoctrination into hockey for real.

By 2010, I was in college, a time when my earliest class went from 8:00 my first semester, to 2:00pm by 2nd semester Junion Year, I was routinely watching late night hockey. In fact, I coveted it. If anything, I wanted those late nigth games to go to triple OT, ending around 3am EST. I didn't want the intensity, the joy of the game, to end. I would cherish that first day of playoff hockey, when the last game would start at 10:30 or 11:00, and I could be up until 2:00am watching hockey, instead of mindlessly browsing the internet (let's be real, 'being asleep' wasn't a real alternative by then).

If anything, the worst part of getting to the Conference Finals round was that there were no more 10:00pm or later start-times. Things would be normal, would be sane. But I wanted the insane, the late nights, and it all started because I was able to experience it the year I finished my school effectively in April. So much of my life, be it my love of driving, the friend group I still have, my love of football, is due to my highschool life, from an academic pressure standpoint, more or less ending in early May, 2008. The first gift that period of my life bestowed upon me was the ability to stay up to watch the games I never could, and love hockey more than ever before.

Re-Post: Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 11 - The 2014 NBA Playoffs 1st Round

If there is one downside to the rise of the Warriors (other than Kevin Durant going there), it is the end of the parity era of the NBA. The last great year of the NBA playoffs, aside from a few select series (the 2016 Western Conference Finals & NBA Finals, mainly), was 2014, when we had one of the great two week periods of basketball we've ever received, and I was seated deep in Queretaro, Mexico, to enjoy it all.

I still remember the day I was told I had to venture down to Mexico for a project. To be fair, I wasn't told; I was asked, with a full expectation that I was supposed to say yes. It was a pretty good posting for someone less than a year into the job, to go on a short term assignment in a foreign country for an office that was just beginning to grow. It was exciting. For someone who picked the job I did largely because I could travel, this is not onyl what I signed up for but what I wanted. Still, Mexico, with all its uncertainty, was not a destination I would have volunteered for.

Little did I know, Queretaro was a perfect little town, the posting offered me the opportunity to meet some incredible people, eat some incredible food, find a new favorite drink, and go to Mexico City a few times. Oh, and to watch some incredible basketball on some jacked-up semi-legal streaming service. I mean, that is what I signed up for.

The service was called XMBC, a weird streaming & hosting service that housed tons of 'channels' airing movies and shows on demand, and of course a few live TV options. This was before the days of Reddit's NBA Streams sub, or other services that were more above board. There were a few normal streaming sites I used when in college without cable services, but most of those had already started down the path of being infected with computer aids with endless ads. My second cousin had sold me on XMBC, something of a streaming all-in-one platform. Their sports streams were iffy at best. Each game had 4-5 links, one of which would be good. The WiFi alternated between spotty and perfect at the Hotel Real de Minas in the heart of Santiago de Quereatro. It was an interesting setting that would house my nightly routine.

A quick recap of what the NBA was like a scant four years ago, the postseason tournament that would end with the San Antonio Spurs unleashing three of the most perfect games of basketball than can be played. But a couple months before that basketball nirvana, the Spurs struggled through a 7-game series to put away the Mavericks. That series had everything, close games, patented Spurs blowouts, game winning shots by Vince Carter - a feat that seemed ridiculous given his age FOUR YEARS AGO. Including that Spurs series, there were five different series that went the full seven games. Three of them out West, with the one exception being the Blazers beating the Harden-led Rockets, a series that ended with a Dame Lillard series-winner as time expired in Game 6. It was madness. That whole first round was.

This was a time when the Thunder were in all their glory, but more than that the Grit 'N' Grind Grizzlies were too, and they played a fascinating 7-game series, somewhat marred by suspension to Zach Randolph keeping him out of Game 7. The Clippers and Warriors played a seven game series, the last time the Warriors would be anything other than prohibitive favorites - and it played out against the backdrop of the Donald Sterling scandal. It was a great time to be alive as an NBA fan. The styles were varied. No team had Rockets-ized and shot 40+ threes You had big post teams like the Blazers and Grizzlies, great passing teams like teh Warriors and Clippers, and whatever the hell the Thunder called their dual iso offense. It was magic.

It was nice that the Western Conference Playoffs were so fantastic, as being in Central Time Zone, the games were perfectly timed, starting anywhere between 8 and 9:30 local time, ending latest at 12:30. I used to watch them during dinner and after - the during being mostly the Eastern Conference (far less fun, with the two series that went the distance being the top-seed Pacers struggling against the Hawks, and the Nets beating the Raptors in their last moment of relevance). After used to be back at the Hotel Real de Minas, my home for two months, in their courtyard near the pool at the bar. I took my place at a table in a comfy chair, and ordered Alfonso XIII's while I fired up XMBC.

What is an Alfonso XIII (Trece)? It's a mixture of Kahlua, Evaporated Milk and Brandy, with one or two ice cubes. They were refreshing as hell. I swilled those down - telling the bartender to make it lighter than normal, as I was dug into my chair until the battery forced me back to my room. It was an ideal setting, the thin, cool Queretaro air making the evenings rather sweet.

The games made it even better - to be honest, I was watching the NHL playoffs at this time as well. Somehow, the internet at times was strong enough to do it simultaneously. But while the NHL playoffs were featuring the Sharks blowing a 0-3 lead to the Kings, the NBA playoffs featured close game after close game. The level of play was unreal. The competitiveness of the games was insane.

The Thunder and Grizzlies played a seven game war that featured four straight OT games in Games 2 through 5. The series was somewhat sullied by Zach Randolph's (deserved) suspension for punching Steven Adams forcing him to miss Game 7, but those four straight OT games, including final margins of 3, 3 and 1 on the last three, were enough to remember forever.

The Clippers Warriors series may be overshadowed by teh Sterling issue, or it being the last moments where the Warriors were mere mortals, coached by Mark Jackson, but it featured games that ended with margins of 4, 2, 1 and 5 - the last being a 126-121 Game 7 win that I can still remember to this day, a game filled with peerless execution by the Clippers during probably their best season in the CP3-Blake era.

Finally, the only West series not to go the full seven might have been the best, as it featured another three OT games in its six games, going the extra five in Game 1 (2 point Portland win), Game 3 (5 point Rockets win) and Game 4 (3 point Portland win). Of course, the series would end in the best game, with Dame Lillard hitting a series winning three as time expired to win Game 6 by one point, taking the Blazers to the second round.

The level of play was fantastic all around, about as good as those damn Alfonso XIII's. It may seem like my lasting memory from this project is the fact I got semi-buzzed nightly drinking a milk-based cocktail watching streamed basketball. Fear not, my real memories from Queretaro are the restaurants, including a Mexican Churascaria right next door, or the other really nice restaurant across the road. The other memories are the perfect little town center; the trips to Mexico City, which included a 2.5 hour bus-ride on the most comfortable bus I've ever been in. The fact I could also watch basketball semi-legally a country away was just an added bonus.

The Beauty of the NHL Playoffs, Pt. 2

The Beauty of the NHL Playoffs, Pt. 1

The Stanley Cup Playoffs started yesterday, with an OT win by the Capitals over the Bruins. It continued today with the Islanders and Penguins going to OT, with the Islanders pulling it out. It continued more with the Wild upsetting the Golden Knights - again in OT. It ended with maybe the best game of the set, which despite not going to OT saw the first battle of Florida playoff game end 5-4 with five lead changes. Yeah, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are kind of unendingly brilliant.

Like its sister sport, the NBA - which will start its playoffs mid-week, this was a rough season. The last one ended with a bubbl3e in Edmonton in late September. It was a disjointed 56-game season srating early January. The league was ripped up and re-set with an all Canadian division, and a schedule where teams only played those in its division, most of this mandated on the league due to the border restrictions with Canada. Just like last season, I'm sure people will have their opinions on how "real" this season was, but what definitely felt real was the first set of playoff games.

Last seasons playoffs were fine and had some great moments but also were played in sterile bubbles. Despite the highest attendance being 9k (50% capacity in Florida) these felt like playoff games. The fans had the same nervous energy, the same explosion of joy with home team goals, the same noise emanating when their team crunched a bit hit or got a huge save. It all felt real, even normal dare we say. 

**quick aside: also normal, the NHL being ridiculously weird and dumb at times, making the Canada division hold off on starting the playoffs to ensure the Canucks play three meaningless games**

Let's start from the last game first, the Battle of Florida, which truly was one of the best early round playoff games I've ever seen. Two teams that don;t like each other with a great amount of physicality after teh whistle (though nothing dirty). Tons of open ice, end to end, 78 total shots, 9 goals, with each team trading off runs of two goals to go 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, 5-4. Brilliant performacnes by the best players on each team (Kucherov, back from hip surgery, with three points; Hedman with three points, Point with two goals, Huberdeau with three points, Barkov with two points). Great goaltending despite teh final score. All of it in front of the most well attended hockey game in 14 months. All of it was excellent. 

But while that game was too good, the rest of the weekend wasn't too bad either. I didn't watch too much of the opener, but had the great story of 40-year old Craig Anderson pitching a brilliant performance in relief. The Islanders and Penguins have a low-key little rivalry, and while the Penguins lost, we got to see an unreal hand-eye goal from Crosby. And while the Wild v Knights game was 1-0 it was also really fun and open with just brilliant goaltending from both Fleury and Talbot.

Last August through September, having the NHL and NBA playoffs each night was such a beautiful little bright light in a dark, dark time. Now this returns, with the NBA quick on its heels, in what should be the start of a brighter time in our world. Thigns are returning to normal, and nothing is ever as normal as the Stanley Cup Playoffs being absolutely breathtaking

BTW, I will be adding a Pt. 2 of this post come Wednesday once all series have kicked off.

Bidding Adieu to Albert

When Albert Pujols was unceremoniously released last week, it meant very little to me as my current life as a baseball fan in 2021. However, in a few minutes of reflection, I did remember what Pujols really meant to me - someone old enough to (all too well) remember his Cardinals days. I love and remember Pujols by admitting how absolutely terrified I was of him. I took me a while to come to terms with this, but I can confidently say that no player, not Tom Brady or Lionel Messi, or Novak Djokovic, or Roger Federer, was I more afraid of than Albert Pujols.

It's weird to think of any baseball player being your most feared athlete. For one, as the old adage goes "if you fail seven of ten times, you're in the hall of fame" - which fine is not fully true (a .300 OBP is garbage), but still Pujols failed more often than he succeeded, but holy hell if it seemed like he was going to get a hit every damn time. The way he held the bat, rising and lowering metronomically, ready to whip with such quick fury from such a powerful man. I could just visualize each time him hammering a ball into oblivion. And often he did. And one time he did to a level still mesmerizingly awesome 16 years later.

I've written about Pujols' home run in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS off of Brad Lidge. It was a horrifying moment for me, a young 14 year old baseball fan too overly attached that the Astros. Doesn't matter that the Astros won the series - doing so the very next game shutting down the old Busch Stadium. Doesn't matter one bit. It still ranks as one of the worst losses in my life as a sports fan.

Pujols' home run is larger than me. It's amazing how well remembered that moment is in the history of the league. I would argue it is the most famous non-World Series home run by a team that would lose the series (so I'm not including Carlton Fisk's home run, or Jeter's "Mr. November" homer). His team again would lose the next game but that homer lives on, because it so encapsulated everything about how horribly great Pujols was at his peak.

I literally started counting the outs in the 7th inning in hopes that he wouldn't have to bat again. Starting the 9th, every Astros fan knew that if Pujols got to the plate, he was absolutely hitting a home run. It all seemed so inevitable. We knew it when the inning started, knew it more after Eckstein hit a seeing-eye single, or after Jim Edmonds walked. It was even inevitable after Brad Lidge made Pujols swing wildly on the first pitch. It was inevitable the whole time. Minute Maid Park was as loud as a ballpark has ever been right until that hanging slider, than fell instantly into a silence of a funeral. Pujols could do that, just rip your heart out by his brillaince.

His slow mediocre ten years in Anaheim is so incomprehensible to me, specifically because of how incomprehensibly good he was in St. Louis. Mike Trout is about to finish his 10th season. He entered this year with 74 WAR through 9 seasons (really 8.5 due to Covid, and missing a bunch of time and whatnot). That is truly all-time great stuff. He likely ends this season north of 80. He's on track to having one of the best careers ever. This is barely better than what Pujols did in his first ten years.

From 2001-2010, in his age 21-30 seasons, Pujols slashed .331/.426/.624, for an OPS+ of 174. He hit 408 HRs and drew 914 walks to 646 Ks. He also played great defense at 1st base. This all totaled to a WAR of 81.4. Again, this is not all that much worse than Mike Trout, his now teammate. Of course, he had his worst year of his career in 2011 (that still meant slashing .299/.366/.541) and it was a harbinger of what was to come in Anaheim. It's sad to me the LA fans, and honestly the baseball public never saw in the 2010s what we all saw nightly in the 2000s.

Albert Pujols even in that "down" 2011 season made one last incredible show, hitting three home runs in Game 4 of hte World Series, a tremendous series the Cardinals would win. It was his last send-off - in a way you could wish his career ends at that moment, standing alone as the best player of a generation, the best player of a decade, truly one of the best talents in MLB history.

I'll never forget Albert Pujols because he never stopped haunting me, in a truly lengendary way. The Cardinals Pujols was one of the great players ever, putting together one of the most dominant decades the sport has ever seen. He ruined so many nights for fans of NL Central teams, laid waste to pitcher after pitcher, hit home runs that still haven't landed. That's the Pujols I'll remember, the one that was a true titan of the sport.

The best and worst of NBA Seasons

This has been one of the more entertaining NBA regular seasons in memory. For a lot of good reasons, and a lot of bad reasons, and a lot of good reasons that are driven by bad reasons. As we head to the home stretch of the season, there are close races galore for playoff spots and positioning. The move to make the 'play-in' tournament more firm and permanent has done wonders, creating an almost NFL-esque playoff structure where there are races within the races of 1-8 (now 1-10) which are meaningful. There's the race for 6th (stay out of the play-in), the race for 4th (home court), the race for #1 (real home court) and of course the race for 8th (only need to win one game) and 10th (get in the play-in). This has been a huge boon to the NBA. But the reasons for this great season go well beyond this.

The real driver to me is the lack of the super-team. Technically this happened in the last regular season to, which was until the COVID shutdown was shaping up to be a great regular season as well. But then we had the shutdown and bubble and all the rest. This year, we (luckily) haven't had that, and while there are two teams that probably fit the criteria of the Superteams, with the Nets and Lakers, they've both had their team curtailed by injury. And therein lies one of the "good reasons that are due to bad reasons". Injuries have played a big role in teh season, and in a weird way flattened things.

The injuries are inescapable, both Covid related and otherwise. The best example of this is probably the fact that we've seen what could've been an incredible MVP race end up with Nikola Jokic a clear winner because everyone that came close to him got hurt at some point. Be it LeBron, Joel Embiid (granted, just 10 games or so), Durant, Harden, and more. Luckily most of these guys are back, but it hurt the quality of teams at some point - of course it ends with just bananas close races across all conferences.

There are enough great stories that last though. You have the Nuggest and Jokic, stamping his name as the best passing big man ever and the first true center to win an MVP in 21 years. You have the Jazz playing beautiful basketball, shooting and making threes at a record rate. You have the lunacy of the Suns being a potential #1 seed. You have the Bucks still being a great team, same with the Clippers, though for those two we'll await to the playoffs to see if anyone will give a shit. And hell, shouldn't bury the lead here, you have the damn Knicks being a honest to God good team. This is just a great season.

Of course, there's one big issue hiding behind all this beautiful basketball and close races: threes are ruining the game. Not in the "the game was better in 90's, no one plays defense" way, but in another more factual way. I should say, threes are clearly a valuable, efficient and important shot. It's a winning shot, as first truly shown by 2011 Mavs who went on a 3-pt shooting bonanza (for the time, at least) in their way to a win. Reinforced by the 2014 Spurs and of course the Warriors. Now everyone basically tries to play like those teams. Therein lies the issue: threes are still a high-variance shot, which leads to a bunch of blowouts.

Not every team is good at hitting threes, which is fairly obvious. What is less openly obvious is teams aren't good even night to night. The Jazz, a truly great shooting team, could hit 50% of their threes one night, then 32% of them the next night. You may then end up with games where one team hits 47% and one team hits 31% even if they're both more or less as good normally, which leads to a blowout. There's been a lot of blowouts. NBA stat-master Seth Partnow mentioned recently about 10% of the entire season (in terms of game minutes) have been played with one team leading the other by 20 or more. Of course, every now and then the team down is able to make a run, make it interesting, if not outright retake the lead, but equally often the game goes to 25 then 30, even recently a spate of 40+ pt blowouts. 

Yes, teams that make the playoffs are better than that and we probably won't get any 40+ pt blowouts, but we may still get a whole lot of 20 pt ones. There were a bunch in the last postseason too. It's been on an upward trend for years. Even series we allre member to be great have had this issue - take the 2016 Finals which of course had the memorable game 7, but that was preceded by six pretty bad blowouts, largely driven by which team was hot from three. I hope we don't have repeats of those types of series, especially since we got openly lucky with teh close Game 7.

This season has still been great, especially a great one to follow day-to-day, week-to-week, with the ups and downs of various teams, the storylines, the rise of the Joker, etc. But in the end I truly hope the three point shooting variance, the woes of night to night deep shooting, don't ruin what could be a special season.

A Year of Homeownership

On April 29th, 2020, my life changed forever. Might be a little dramatic, to be fair. But on April 29th, 2020, deep into the pandemic's third month, I went into a open lawyer's office in Hoboken sat on one end of a long table, with a real estate attorney who I never met prior. It was my first time in six weeks indoors (non-super market) with someone who was not my family. We both wore masks. He slid paper after paper over to me for me to sign. At the end of it, he gave me some keys and said "congratulations" and I was on my way.

Five minutes later, I walked into the apartment for the first time I could call it "my apartment". In reality, it was still only the third time I walked into that space. I went there the first time in January on my last house-hunting search in Hoboken - an exercise I started in August the year prior. I had seen many places, even made an offer on one. There are a few that will forever be the one that got away (someone snapped up). It was a long and daunting process. But I found me place, and got my offer accepted in mid-February - in the pre-COVID days. I was still travelling each week so I made my mom go with the inspector. At that point I was more or less pot committed. And then Covid struck.

Covid had some direct impact, like delaying every other part of the process, including the few repairs that were needed. The seller lived in the UK (the place was leased-out) and seemingly e-mails to-and-fro were being sent by ship. Of course, two months from offer to close isn't that bad, but Covid made everything seem like it took forever.

The second time I went to the place was for a final walkthrough, a couple days before the closing. Right before I went inside I had so many fears. What if I didn't like it on second viewing? What if there's some awful break or stain or something that we missed. It was too far at that point to really back out. Luckily, it was all fine.

That whole last month or so as in my mind things kept dragging on, I was on edge. Buying a house is a big decision, only made worse by the unclear pandemic-laden hellscape we were living in. The economy was in freefall, I couldn't be in too secure a place with my job (in the end, I was). Making this move in such uncertain times seemed maddening. Luckily I grew past those fears and dove head in.

By the end, I was fully excited and fully ready. Walking in on April 29th, 2020, I was overjoyed. I didn't cry, but I had this big smile plastered on my face. It was a cool feeling - my own place. I brought very limited things that first day, a set of plates and cups, a lot of cleaning supplies, a big thing of rice and a cement little hedgehog to keep outside (yeah no idea why with those last two). But overall it was a blank, empty canvas.

Working to fill up that empty canvas brought so much joy to the otherwise desolate first few months of lockdown. So many hours spent online cycling through furniture sites, working through a visualization on floorplanner.com. Even our only ventures out of the house (aside from the grocery store and my hike) was to the apartment, a true refuge. In so many ways it ended up being perfect timing.

Not needing to go into work or travel allowed me to "move in" over the course of months, bringing in things or building a piece of furtniture bit by bit. It is somewhat weird to think I "owned" the apartment on April 29th but didn't really "live" in it until about October. In the beginning, it was that Saturday voyage and generally a midweek trip for a few hours - something that in retrospect that was absurd.

In a weird way, as it became more of a home starting in October (started off staying 1-2 nights on the convertible couch to 4-5 nights on a bed now), I came to miss, if not outright long for, the early days of the empty canvas. I think largely most of the furniture and decorating decisions were good but playing God of your little own space was so much fun.

It's hard to believe a year has gone by. There's still some stuff to build out - namely my outdoor patio area, but I do feel like the home has been lived in. It is by and large cleaner than I would have expected myself to keep it at. It feels like a place I know, especially since I spent more time than I thought I would. Covid helped in that small way, making a year of homeownership already feel like a lifetime.