Why I don't like the Winter Olympics

So I guess the Winter Olympics are probably over - at least that's what I see on my friends' Facebook stati. See, I don't care much for these Games, not even when many others who normally don't care about hockey or skiing or curling get caught up in a patriotic fervor and find themselves hoping Bode Miller gets a gold medal in something.

I didn't really have a good reason to dislike the Winter Olympics, until two or three days ago, when it hit me.

The Winter Olympics are all about being the best in the world at a sport no one plays.

Think about it: how many people, worldwide, would you say curl? Even in Canada, where the sport is definitely the most popular, only 80,000 citizens play. Can we place the number anywhere near 1 million, worldwide? And even if we can, that's still only 0.000142857143 of the Earth's population.

So essentially, the curling gold medal winners are the best in entire world at a sport around one ten-thousandth of the world plays.

Forgive me for not being impressed.

Same problem in women's hockey. Apparently there are three nations capable of fielding a decent women's hockey team: Canada, the United States and Finland. The rest of the countries that competed in Vancouver were essentially happy to be there. So congratulations, Canadian women's hockey team! You're the best of three teams, worldwide, at what you do!

This can be applied to pretty much every event at the Winter Olympics. Bobsled? Check. Short track ice skating? Check. Ski jumping? Check. The biathlon? Check.

Now on the other hand, the Summer Olympics have a ton of events that everyone on earth can do. Sprinting? Everyone not in a wheelchair has done that at some time or another. Jumping? Same. Swimming? I'm willing to bet 80% of the world knows how to swim. And the number of soccer players the world over is staggering.

To get a gold at the Summer Olympics impresses me.

Not so much on the Winter side of things.

So now you know why this blog has had a distinct lack of Vancouver Olympics coverage.

Well, that, and general laziness.

Memories

We inherited a couple gallons of Tampico thanks to my wife's grandma's birthday party last week, including this Tropical Punch flavor.

It tastes exactly like someone melted a few hundred rocket popsicles and put the resulting liquid into a jug. My only experience from these popsicles is at my grandma's house in the summer. One year my parents went to Israel for a few weeks and left us there. I spent a lot of time riding my bike in circles around that block and eating those popsicles.

Here is a photo for reference.

Anyway, kinda weird. If I were really enterprising I'd look at the ingredients for both and see how similar they really are or if my tastebuds are remembering the rocket popsicle wrong.

Lakers lose to spite me

No sooner do I rant about how the Lakers are better without Kobe, then they go out and lose to the Celtics in Los Angeles. Boston shot 44% from the field, 33% from deep and 61% from the line and LA still couldn't manage to win.

Sheesh.

In the interest of saving some face, the Lake Show could have done a better job giving their big men the ball. Bynum, Gasol and Odom combined to shoot 48% from the field, while LA's guards made a blistering 25 percent of their shots.

In other news, the Jazz traded Ronnie Brewer for virtually nothing yesterday. Okay, so technically Memphis gave up a protected draft pick, but come on! It's a protected draft pick that the Jazz probably won't see for another two or three years.

They really couldn't have gotten anything better than that for Brewer? Sure, the dude can't shoot, but he's a defensive presence and can finish around the rim... hardly a scrub.

Basically the Jazz did this to save $2.8 million dollars in salary owed to Ronnie. Nothin' like a straight financial decision to excite your fan base, guys.

First Eric Maynor, now Ronnie Brewer. I don't like this trend.

Hollywood is tricky

I realized green screen technology exists, obviously, but I didn't know it was used so extensively. Wow.

Kobe hatin' time

Am I the only one who fears the Lakers more when Kobe isn't on the court?

Probably. But hear me out.

Since Kobe went out with an ankle/finger/foot injury, LA is 4-0, with two of those wins coming on the road. Here's a look at last night's game against the Warriors, specifically crunch time.

The Warriors tied the game at 89 with 4:37 left. The Lakers then went out on a 7 point run, effectively putting the Warriors out of reach. After Ron Artest made a foul shot, the Lakers went inside to Pau Gasol. In fact, he went on to score the next 6 points. The Warriors really had no answer (they tried using Ronny Turiaf) to defend Gasol, so the Lakers went to him time and time again.

As a Jazz fan, I look at this Laker team and realize Utah (and many other teams) can do nothing to stop Gasol or Odom or Bynum. And as the game in Salt Lake on the 10th showed, Pau and Lamar went for 25 and 22 points, respectively, on 70% shooting from the field and 92.8% shooting from the free-throw line. As long as the Lakers kept banging it inside and finding the open man when the double team came, the Jazz were not winning that game.

Want to know how the Jazz can beat LA? By baiting Kobe into taking 19-foot fadeaways while triple teamed. Convince Kobe he is a shooting god, and then pray he goes 9-29. That is the only way.

As good a scorer as Kobe is, he is just a scorer. He doesn't make his teammates better, like LeBron does. (If LeBron was out for 4+ games, how many victories do you think the Cavs get during that time?) He just shoots, and shoots well more often than not. But that's it.

Last night, Tim Duncan shot 4-23 from the field. Now normally, if Kobe has a night like that, the Lakers lose, because he can't give you much else. Sure, he defends well, but that can only take you so far.

Duncan, in response to his poor shooting performance, decided to absolutely dominate the boards and own everything under the basket. He pulled down 26 rebounds and held the Indiana big men to 10-23 shooting. And San Antonio won, partly in thanks to a Duncan offensive rebound with under 10 seconds to go and the Spurs up 3, allowing San Antonio to run the clock and preserve the win.

Compare that to Kobe, who will mope and sulk if things aren't going his way and find ways to blame his teammates.

If the Black Mamba had the maturity to understand that he can't do it by himself every night, if he was more willing to find an open Odom cutting to the hoop or feed Pau in the deep post, I'd respect his game a lot more. But it's all about him.

And I think the Lakers, as presently constituted, are a slightly better team without him doing his own thing, for his own reasons, every night.

NFL and NBA lockout?

Bill Simmons has been talking about this on his podcast for a while now, but apparently both the NBA and the NFL are headed for a lockout in 2011. The economy doing poorly = less people buying tickets to sporting events = less money for the owners. So the owners want to cut player salary, but the respective player's unions are not okay with that.

And presto: lockout for two of the three major sports in the United States simultaneously.

Here are two links discussing each lockout possibility in depth.

If the [NBA]and the players continue down this path, it is clearly not going to end well. It is an unfortunate circumstance. Sure, there are plenty of negative comments made by those who don’t follow the NBA (“it’s too boring”), but right now, the league is the most entertaining it has been in years, with several superstars in both conferences (LeBron, Kobe, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, among others).

I concur with the last sentiment... the NBA has great games almost every night. I'd miss them for sure.

Don’t expect anything to be resolved between the [NFL] and the Players Association. But expect for the rhetoric, posturing and chest beating to be ramped up. This is all a precursor to the inevitable showdown next February, when the threat of a lockout likely will force an agreement.

Oh well, at least we'll have hockey and baseball. :(

Lost explained by people who have never watched Lost

For those who don't watch.

For those who do, check out Things We Learned From Lost Last Night.