I officially love hockey. Well, not exactly.
I can honestly say that I have never watched a hockey game from start to finish, I can’t name all the NHL teams nor am I familiar with more than just a handful of marquee players; and my idea of good hockey is Emilio Estevez’ 1992 flick Mighty Ducks.But I’ve become a true fan. The NHL is currently on lockout, they haven’t played a single game this season because the owners and players’ union cannot come to an agreement, and the former great Wayne Gretzky has been quoted saying that the lockout could last years.
So why have I become a huge hockey fan when they haven’t even taken the ice this season you ask?
Because according to Monday’s issue of Sports Illustrated, hockey’s bickering has led to ESPN’s televising of 18 more college basketball games that wouldn’t have been televised otherwise. How could hockey be any better?
Instead of watching toothless men flutter about an ice-skating rink with sticks in which most games the scores end up 3-2, or even worse a tie, I get to hear Dick Vitale overreact over a great lay up, or I get a chance to see an upset as an unranked school knocks off a powerhouse.
I used to be an NBA guy. The league was fairly easy to follow with 30 teams or so and around 350 players, whereas college basketball has well over 100 teams and more than 1,500 players coming in and out every four years making it tough to keep tabs on.
But I’m fed up with professional basketball right now. I’m sick of the Latrell Sprewells who can’t seem to find enough change left over to feed their families with a $17 million a year contract.
I’m sick of a system where we expect players to behave themselves and not throw punches when the league pays players three, four and sometimes five times what their coach pulls down in a season.
I’m sick of the soap operas that the Shaq and Kobe era have had because of their selfishness, and knowing that if they had just swallowed themseleves they could have won about a hundred championships.
I’m sick of the no defensin’, And1 mix tapin’ thugs who think because they’re pushing seven feet tall that it’s something special when they throw down a dunk that only requires about a 12 inch vertical.
Ever since the departure of Michael Jordan the energy of the professional game has lost its luster with me, and that is what I think has drawn me back to the college game.
Where else can you group together literally thousands of undergraduate students in the same sections who are truly passionate about their team and go insane with every scored bucket, every blocked shot, and every bad call the referee makes? Students at Duke University literally camp out on the lawn in front of Cameron Indoor Stadium the night before game day just so they can be on the front rows of the student sections for the game.
On most Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights if you don’t see me watching ACU’s own Joe Carr toss the alley-oop to Hakim Rasul or watch our ladies pull off an upset on some overrated team from San Angelo, you can bet that there’s a game on somewhere that I’m watching.
And hockey, I couldn’t love you more.