Rome Wasn’t Built In a Day

I don’t consider myself to be ‘a hater,’ but I have to admit I enjoy rooting against big market, glitzy teams like the Miami Heat.

Really, I don’t follow the NBA that closely, but as a sports fan, it’s hard not to pick up the basic details each day. And when a team is a media magnet as the Heat have become, then you just can’t escape all the hype and analysis.

Also, I am no fan of this trend where superstars play a few years in ‘flyover land’ and then pick some glamorous, major market destination along one of the coasts. Really, at the end of the day, if this trend continues, the NBA will have become two leagues – an A and a B league. Then, who will have any interest in watching Milwaukee play Charlotte when all the superstars are gathered in Gotham, Cali or the Sunshine State?

Then, there was the over-the-top hysteria of ‘The Decision’ two summers ago, followed by the big ‘coming out party’ of Miami’s Big Three – LeBron, D-Wade and Chris Bosh when they took their talents to South Beach. If you weren’t a die-hard Heat fan at that point, you had to be turned off. And that means you just gotta root against the Heat – as you would do against the New York Yankees, New England Patriots, L.A. Lakers and Duke basketball.

And, of course, timing plays a part in this equation, too. We JUST finished the NHL playoffs, capped off with a L.A. win over New Jersey (a.k.a. part of the ‘Tri State Area’) in the Stanley Cup Finals. On the heels of the hockey finals, now, the NBA’s Heat are facing a team from America’s heartland. It’s hard NOT to root for OKC in the 2012 NBA Finals. Chalk one up for ‘the little guy.’

The Thunder won game one last night by the final score of 105-94 and the statisticians tell us that the team who wins Game One of the NBA Finals goes on to win the series 72.3% of the time. Also, they seem deeper (and with fresher legs). You gotta like those odds.

It would just be so much fun to watch glitz and glamour have another epic fail while folks from mid-America celebrate a title. And, of course, it would give us one more excuse to watch this classic clip: Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day.

JG

Originally posted 6/13/2012