(cue the Biggie...) I'm going out of town for the long holiday weekend, so all of you out there (if there are any of you) are going to have to survive for a few days without my wonderful and insightful analysis about all things basketball for a few days. (I'll pause for a moment to let you scream in anguish and control your sobbing...) But fear not, I will be back with even more opinions and prognostications about the realm of professional sports on Tuesday, and by then I should have plenty to write about.
Also, I'm going to try and score some seats to the Blazers/Heat game going down tonight in Portland, which would be my first live NBA game of this young season. I've never seen D-Wade or Oden (obviously) in person, so it will definitely be interesting to see those guys in action. It may sound silly, but I firmly believe that television cameras distort the size and quickness of these guys. You don't really get a feel for the speed of the game unless you're actually there to see it live. It sounds odd, but I can tell you from personal experience that it's true.
I think that the issue is that on TV it is easy to lose perspective on just how big most of the guys on the court actually are. Nobody (except maybe Shaq or Yao) look insanely huge relative to most NBA players, so it's often difficult to tell just how huge these guys really are and how amazingly fast they actually move. Sure, I know that Tracy McGrady is something close to 6'10" and moves with the freakish grace of a ballet dancer, but just knowing that without actually seeing it isn't enough to really be able to grasp the concept. And yeah, I've watched Paul Pierce enough on TV to know that he's always probing for a weakness, and that even though he seems to be moving in slow motion he still manages to get to his spot or the rim at will time and again, but without seeing him do these things live (which I have done many times), would I really understand?
I think the single best example I can think of to illustrate this concept is Amare Stoudemire. I have watched Amare on TV many times and been awed by his athletic prowess, but let me tell you, I had no idea just how much of a freak he was until I saw him live at the Rose Garden a few years ago. Luckily, this was back in the seven seconds or less days of the Suns when they were actually fun to watch and won games. Reflecting on that game (I do believe that the Suns won in a shootout), here is what sticks out the most. First off, Amare is giant, which can get lost on TV. 6'10" is a number, but to see him out there on the court gave me a whole new dimension of understanding about his freakish size. Secondly, he was the fastest player on the court that night, regardless of position and/or size, and yes, you did just read that correctly. Steve Nash didn't play that game, but somehow I don't think it would have mattered when it came to speed. And I'm not just talking about end to end foot speed, either, but about his quickness and ability to move in spurts. Amare has an extra gear, and when he's running on all cylinders, everyone else is moving in slow motion.
Third, and this is the scariest and most impressive (it gets its own paragraph, for crying out loud) I have never seen anyone or anything move with such grace and balance. Even at 6'10,"Amare moved more fluidly than anyone else, and he was always in control of his body. He just seemed to be so naturally comfortable doing these extraordinary things on the court, and he was so graceful in doing them. Most guards don't look half as comfortable as Stoudemire when driving for a layup or running the court, and here is this gargantuan figure gliding up and down the court making it look simultaneously so easy for himself and so difficult for everyone else. I got the same feeling two years ago when my father and I saw LeBron James in Boston against the Pierce-less Celtics. Amare is that kind of freaky athlete, only more so because he's taller and slimmer than LeBron and moves less like a runaway freight train and more like a 6'10" Barry Sanders. As Bill Walton once said (and for once, it's not gross hyperbole), "Amare Stoudemire, winner of the genetic lottery!"
As a quick aside, by the way, that Celtics/Cavs game was incredible. LeBron scored 30+ points without even looking like he was trying, including hitting two buzzer beaters in that game (one was a back to the basket reverse layup off of a lob pass, the other was your run of the mill 75 footer). The crazy thing was that even without Pierce, the Celtics were right in it until Tony Allen clanked the first of two free throws that could have tied the game in the closing seconds, but this was back in the days of Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes and Damon Jones, so I guess that's why.
The bottom line is that as much as you can see on TV (and HD has made games ever so enjoyable to watch at home), there's no substitute for seeing the game live. Not only do you get to watch in 3-D and feel the energy and excitement of the crowd, but you can watch even the most minnute of details and really get an understanding about how the game is played and how a certain player plays their game. That's why I'm so excited to go see Greg Oden and the Blazers tonight, hopefully it will let me gauge how well he is moving and how the Blazers play with him on the floor. Oh yeah, and I'll get to watch Wade make five people miss and knife right to the rim as if the defense isn't even there (that should be fun, too). Depending on how late the game goes/how drunk I am after, there might be some recap/analysis coming later tonight. Until then, I bid you all adieu and a happy Thanksgiving.
