I just saw the Gatorade commercial about the men's soccer team while playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." It's an absolutely brilliant commercial that give me chills. I really can't explain why US soccer gives me this rush of patriotism that no other sport really does. I think it's because the American soccer team is finally an underdog unlike the basketball team, baseball team, etc. When we beat teams on the world stage, we're pulling off an upset mainly in the minds of the South Americans and the Europeans. I don't care about any other soccer either but I absolutely love the World Cup. Last World Cup, I watched all the US matches in the early morning with my friends (most of whom didn't care) but it was absolutely brilliant. Beating Mexico was one of the greatest sports moments.
Which leads me to my next point that I've been thinking about for some time now, mainly because the NBA playoffs have been going...there's something about the playoffs that demand that a team suffer and fight from round to round year to year in order to make the Finals. If they don't do that (especially in football and basketball. Baseball's weird because only 4 teams make it in each league). For example, look at the Mavericks. They have been battling to get into the Finals for a good 5 years now. It's horribly disguting when a team comes out of nowhere to get to the Finals and then drops off the radar. In football, see every NFC team recently. Disgusting. You have to create and mold a team and have them battle together and then the trips to the Finals are so much sweeter. I believe this because I am a Utah Jazz fan. First of all, the Jazz are sucha hard-luck case. They lost in the Conference Finals to Portland, Houston and the Sonics. They made it to the Finals twice only to lose hard-fought battles to the Bulls. That's 5 Conference Finals appearances in 8 years. When they finally made the Finals in 1997, it was the greatest sense of relief. You could see it on Stockton's face. I almost bought a Utah Jazz Western Conference Championship shirt. Almost. And yet, no one ever ever ever talks about this team or how awesome a shot that was for the Jazz. It bugs me. No respect for Stockton.
All my last posts have been about sports. I need to move on to something different so my wife and sister won't get bored when they read this.
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Does anyone else remember where they were when Stockton hit the shot in Houston? I was outside the door of the Elms Apartments in Provo, UT. The entire complex was in pandemonium (where's a Scripps spelling champion when I need one?). Everyone, I mean everyone, was watching that game. People were screaming, dancing, hugging - just going bonkers. It reminded me of a crazy Argentine neighbor "gol" celebration. Half of us had no voice by the end of that night. The best basketball moment of my lifetime.
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