Sucked In

I haven't written much since the Jazz lost to the Lakers in the NBA playoffs. My last blog entry was pretty much me being a sore loser and bitter against the Jazz and the league. I didn't watch any of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals because I was too bitter to watch. When the league got the NBA Finals pairing they had been craving since Jordan beat my Jazz in 1998, I refused to watch.

But due to some bad weather, and not having anything else to do, I sat down to watched game 3 of the NBA Finals last night. I don't know why. I guess I just wanted to hang out with some friends. But there was really no drama involved. We all knew the Lakers were going to win. There was no way the NBA would allow the Celtics to take a 3 games to none lead and suck all the excitement out of the air.

Fortunately for us viewers, it was not a blowout. The Celtics managed to keep the game close despite the turr-ible games from Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. But in the end, the Lakers got a couple of calls in the final two minutes to secure the victory. I'm not saying the refs were fixed, because the Lakers deserved to win the game due to Garnett's and Pierce's poor outings. But, the only drama of the game is that the Celtics kept it closer than we expected.

I've come to learn that a seven-game series really has no drama. It's just a chance for the league to sell 5-7 games instead of one. We all know how it's going to play out. And somewhere during games 4-6 there is a turning point, where one of the teams (usually the favored one) does just enough, or gets a lucky enough break to win a pivotal game and suck the life out of the other team (usually the underdog). So we as fans, commit ourselves to two weeks of television for one made or missed shot, one bad bounce or one bad call.

I'm not saying it's bad. At least football does all of this in one game, and doesn't spread it out over two weeks like a bad reality show. Think about it -- there is never any real drama in a reality show. We all know what's going to happen, but we sit through seven episodes of yelling to get that one pivotal moment. But somehow the networks "create drama" in every show where "someone is going to get kicked off." Oh NO! But we all know who the drama queen is that is leaving.

That's what the NBA Playoffs have become. One big reality show, like "American Idol," "Survivor," or even "Rock of Love." We all know who is going to be in the final 2-3 from the start, and we sit through two months of obvious crap just to see which one of the 2-3 gets to be "voted" champion.

At least the NFL is more like a movie. You get a week's worth of previews, but then you get one movie to sit through on Sunday that is provided with real drama, then you're done and on to the next week of previews before the next "feature presentation."

And that why the NFL is king. It's Hollywood versus bad cable reality shows. And we all hate reality shows even when we do get sucked in, because we know they are cheap and we hate admitting our guilty pleasures. At least with movies, you don't have to be ashamed to admit you like them.