screwed by the nba

this is my second full year as a viewer and fan of the nba, and unfortunately, i am starting to know the frustration that the sports guy(arguably the biggest nba fan ever) has expressed for years about the league and its practices. and it sucks, because i really fucking like basketball, especially pro basketball(although i can't deny college hoops by any means, i am just slightly less attached since i don't really have a team affiliation-of my own, anyhow) and, having identified myself last year as a suns fan, i am in the phase where i am becoming emotionally attached to their successes and failures, and more importantly, to any slights and injustices against them.

for the story, i can simply refer you to the aforementioned sports guy, who really summed all this up perfectly, as usual. i watched last nights game, and the suns really had that game won for most of it; perhaps it's necessary to look at the fact that raja's shots just were not falling and even nash was struggling to make shots, although he was still really effective in assisting an on- fire shawn marion. in the first half, kurt thomas successfully guarded tim duncan and committed only one foul! we still grinding it out against the freaking spurs, up as much as sixteen at some points, all the while missing two critical players. TWO critical players, who, in a game we essentially lost by one point, would have arguably made the difference, and they were out for a BOGUS FUCKING REASON.

i really felt that frustration. this was our season. this IS OUR SEASON. i would love to say that we are still gonna win, and i hope we do, but steve nash played like seven hundred minutes last night, and as you can read in the sports guy article, he has already given three hundred percent this series... it's gonna be rough. AND IT'S UNNECESSARY, if the nba hadn't fucked this all up rule-wise and suspension-wise. it's bullshit.

and i sat there last night as i watched my team claw their way through the fourth quarter, maintaining the lead and then losing it to a tie for the final minutes, i thought, this is it. this is so fucking FRUSTRATING. because it would be one thing if my team were out there losing with their full staff, for their own reasons, but they lost because the skeleton crew that the nba forced us to play with couldn't hang on in those last moments.

a few images in particular stick out in my mind, in the fourth, right when the struggling was really starting, i could see the fatigue in steve nash as he just kept trying and trying...i mean this dude has had his nose split wide open, been battling back issues, gotten knocked all over the court, kneed in the sack by douchebag bruce bowen...but anyhow he tried one of his signature steve nash passes to kurt thomas who missed it, and then as they were running back up the court, he caught up with thomas who was shaking his head and cursing himself out and nash put his hand on his head and told him don't worry about it... it was touching. i know, i'm a fucking sap, but i really felt for these guys last night. i guess that's because i am a fan of their team. but i know they really gave it everything- it's not like we got steamrolled off the court by the spurs. we made them work for it, and then when they win they say shit like "well that's what bruce does" about bowen's late game three. yes i think we all know what BRUCE DOES, and it involves kneeing my point guard in the sack! ugh. i'm not even going into it. i'm mad.

in those last few minutes, i kept having to change the channel, i was watching the cosby show of all things, just to calm my nerves, because i was SO FRUSTRATED. and it wasn't the kind of frustration where your team loses and you are upset and frustrated because they blew it. it was the kind of frustrated where someone ties two of your players hands behind their backs and then sends you out there, all while you are left to bounce off the walls and think of how unnecessary and fucked up that is.

shawn marion, who had a stellar game last night, summed it up: "we left it on the floor. what more can you ask of this team?"

read the sports guy's column