Good for Giannis

Congratulations to the Milwaukee Bucks on wining the 2020-2021 NBA championship. 50 years is a bloody long time to wait since the last title. Now, a whole generation of fans get to revel in the joy of finally seeing their team win it all. As a fan of the San Francisco Giants, I knew what that felt like back in 2010. The Giants won the World Series for the first time since the team moved to San Francisco over 50 years earlier. It warms me to see another fan base experiencing that same euphoria.

I am extremely happy for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the superstar and leader of the Bucks. A year ago he could have sign elsewhere as a free agent, to join another team of stars in order to chase a championship. That would be the easy way. Instead, he chose loyalty to (what was) the beleaguered franchise that drafted him, the only team he’s known. Giannis aimed to win a title with Milwaukee, and that goal is now very much achieved.

Basketball fans root for Giannis because he’s also - by all accounts - a genuinely nice guy. Full of caring and a lack of ego. Just look at this exchange with a fan during a signing event. Unless you’re fans of the opposing team, how can you not root for Giannis?

On the other side of the coin, basketball fans are delighted that Chris Paul - point guard for the losing Phoenix Suns - did not win what would be his first championship. Known as one of the dirtiest players in the league, Paul is a petulant flopper. Nobody likes how he plays the game, except I guess if you’e a fan of his team. Sad thing is, Paul has all the talent in the world; he doesn’t need all this extracurricular stuff to be great. Instead, it rather taints his legacy.

You love to see good things happen to good people. Congrats again to Giannis, and the Milwaukee Bucks.

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Annoyed cat!

Kobe Bryant, dead at 41

Quite honestly, I still can’t believe news.

Yesterday I was at a jovial family gathering to celebrate my nephew’s first birthday. During the lunch portion, one my cousins said, “Have you guys heard that Kobe died?”

My immediate reaction was hard laughter, because the notion of Kobe - the Kobe Bryant - dying is so wild and unfathomable that it simply has got to be a joke. I said as much to my cousin - as did other cousins at the table - but he then affirmed his position and restated that the horrible news is absolutely true, and to go check our phones for confirmation.

I thought to myself that if Kobe has indeed died, my phone would be blowing up right now because my boys would for sure let me know of such monumental breaking news. Sure enough, as soon as the lock screen appeared of my phone, I saw the text messages: Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna - among a total of nine people - have perished in a helicopter accident near Calabasas.

I was in utterly disbelief. How can he be gone? Kobe Bryant, the transcendent basketball talent of my youth (more so than Jordan), whose work ethic and dedication to the craft is stuff of legends, can’t possibly be taken away from us already. At only 41 years of age, there’s still so much he has yet to give to the world: to be that wizened man providing guidance to the kids, reminding them the true meaning of hard work, to be singularly focused on what’s important.

It’s a profound lost; of what Kobe has already given to us, and of the immense potential that’s now disappeared forever.

My heart aches for the Bryant family, the unimaginable pain of losing a husband and a father, and a child as well. It’s difficult to think of circumstances crueler than this.

From now on, my every yell of “KOBE!” when I toss something into a bucket or receptacle will be in honor of the great man. Rest in peace, good sir.

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Here we go again.

Last one at the Oracle

Tomorrow evening will be the final Golden State Warriors basketball game to be played at Oracle Arena. Next season the team will move to their gleaming billion-dollar palace across the bay in downtown San Francisco. Moving on up, as the song goes, but the old childhood home has still got one night of magic left yet. We certainly hope so, anyways.

I don’t have quite nearly as much personal connection/memories to Oracle Arena as other more ardent Warrior fans; I’ve only ever attended one game: a playoff game back in 2016 against the Portland Trail Blazers. It was a game in which Steph Curry didn’t even suit up due to a foot injury, which selfishly spoiled my opportunity to see him play in person. Despite his absence on the floor, the Warriors won the game easily, marking my record as a good luck charm in attendance as perfect.

That record remains the same to this day; Oracle Arena may be up there in the years, but it doesn’t stop the team from charging contemporary prices worthy of a three-time champion. The hefty ticket price just to get into the building for nose-bleed seats, coupled with the fact it’s all the way in Oakland, stopped me from attending games. Which is fine, because not paying to watch lives sports is one of many reasons how I manage to afford a Porsche 911.

With the new state-of-art arena in San Francisco, tickets are sure to be even dearer in price, though from a transportation perspective it’s significantly easier. A half-hour ride on the T line light-rail train will take me to the Chase Center front steps from my house. I reckon I’ll wait a few years until the initial demand for the new arena experience dies down, and I can get upper level seats at a semi reasonable price, before I attend a Warriors home game in San Francisco.

Before that, there’s one more game left in Oakland; a game 6 to even the Finals series and send it back to Toronto for a decisive game 7. I am super excited; this one is for Oracle. Let’s go.

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The one time I made it inside Oracle Arena for a game.

Warriors signing Cousins is a psychological coup

Just when the basketball world is abuzz about LeBron James signing with the Lakers and all its implications, the Warriors sneaks in the following day (yesterday) and drops a bomb by announcing they’ve signed DeMarcus Cousins to a one-year deal at the taxpayer’s exception. 

The same DeMarcus Cousins who before a torn achilles back in January was an All-Star top-10 level player that perennially averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds. He’ll be joining a team that just wrapped up a third championship in four years. The one position found lacking on the Warriors is the center spot and now they’ve finally acquired their long-coveted dynamic scoring big-man.

A team with four All-Stars in the starting lineup just added a fifth (when healthy). LeBron’s move to the Los Angeles is but a blip in a radar. 

I highly appreciate the Cousins move from a psychological perspective. When a team have won consecutive championships, complacency can easily set in. Human nature craves newness and fresh challenges, and the Cousins signing provides just that for the defending champs. The goal of winning it all remains the same but the novelty of fitting and succeeding with Cousins should invigorate the team and prevent the coasting mentality that occurred often this past season.    

The rest of the league - the competition - is psychologically deflated. The Golden State dynasty was already supremely formidable with Curry, Thompson, Durant, Green, and Iguodala on the squad but now they’ve added Cousins? That just might be the mental coup de grace. Players on other teams are tweeting out despair and “why bother”; analysts are facetiously calling for the season to be cancelled. Once again, advantage to the Warriors.

Signing Cousins is a shrewd move that I and many NBA fans did not see coming; the particular circumstances came together perfectly and unexpectedly. indeed there’s an argument against it on the basis of competitive balance, but I think the onus is on the other teams to catch up (Lakers have got to get Kawhi Leonard after this, right?) - even with the recent success the Warriors aren’t going to stand still. 

As well they shouldn’t. 

Photo mode in GT Sport is highly triggering to my wanderlust tendencies.