Hopefully by now you have wrapped up all your errands and wrapped up all your gifts as well. It's always an interesting experience to try and find the right gift for someone. When you think about it, it really shouldn't be that hard. I was buying gifts for my parents, 2 brothers (and their girlfriends) and my girlfriend this year. Now, despite having known my parents for, well since I could breathe, it took me an inordinate amount of time to find them a gift I had any sort of measurable confidence they would enjoy. I don't even have the excuse that my parents are hard to buy for. I could literally wrap up a pair of socks for my mom and a box of cookies for my dad and they would both exclaim it to be the best Christmas ever. I think the thirst to find a great gift for my parents and my brothers for that matter is borne out of a few different things: 1) an insatiable drive that requires me to have given the best gifts of the holiday ( Michael Jordan was born with this drive in something that actually matters, mine is manifested in the triviality of gift giving, which is really the only major difference between Michael Jordan and myself, if you don't include: height, hair color, ethnicity, profession, bank accounts, gambling addictions, mistresses...) 2) Picking out gifts that I think would look good under the tree. In addition to my gift giving quirks, I also have a peculiar shall we say, obsession, over finding the best wrapping paper. I'll spare you the details of my wrapping paper philosophy but it does figure in greatly to my gift giving troubles. Needless to say, I finished this season with a level of confidence I would approximate to a rating of 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. I didn't have any good stories from shopping except I learned from some snooty lady that it's "Williams Sonoma" and definitely NOT "Williams AND Sonoma". Suffice it to say, I will now call it "Williams AND Sonoma" for the rest of my life just for some imaginary spite to some lady I will never see again. 'Tis the season!
Now on to some sports. If you find yourself seeking the solace of sports to get your fix, like an addict seeking a needle, over the holiday weekend, I hope you are an NBA fan. With Christmas falling on a Tuesday there will be no football and no college basketball. Instead, its the NBA. Years ago, this would have been great. I would have heard the John Tesh produced NBA on NBC music and immediately been fired up. Now its just the, well I'm not even sure what goes on with televised NBA games these days, its been so long. Nevertheless, Ill find myself watching and you know you will be to, so here are some quick thoughts on the games:
Game 1: Miami at Cleveland - This is like serving a turd sandwich for an appetizer. The over/under on total points scored in this game is about 75 and if my Christmas depended on it, Id take the under. On the bright side, there is the outside chance that Lebron and Wade go mano y mano for 48 minutes and its a thrilling display of two of the NBA's brightest stars. Or it could be a Damon Jones vs. Jason Williams battle for who can suck the life out of an NBA game the best. By the way, the Miami Heat have employed the following players and actually played them at some point this season: Joel Anthony, Chris Quinn and Earl Barron.
Final Assessment: Don't sacrifice any family time to watch this. In fact, its best served purpose is to have it on in the background and you and any other sports loving family members can make sarcastic remarks at the expense of Shaq, Ricky Davis, Larry Hughes and Sasha Pavlovic. Also, anytime Daniel Gibson appears on screen, make sure you tell someone his nickname is "Boobie".
Game 2: Phoenix @ LA Lakers - If Miami @ Cleveland is a turd sandwich appetizer, this is the filet mignon of the evening; a legitimate rivalry between two teams that have recent post season bad blood between them. The Lakers are finally realizing they have some intriguing young talent and Kobe is finally realizing the "B" button exists, which is to say, you can actually pass to teammates. The Suns are a strange team. Nash is complaining about this team earlier and more often than in the past 3 seasons. On the other hand Grant Hill, Shawn Marion and Leandro Barbosa are all having stellar seasons. Boris Diaw has been awful however and beyond the 7 man rotation, there is little there. Despite that, the Suns are still one of the best teams in the NBA. Sound familiar? The Lakers are getting solid play from Jordan Farmar, Vlad Radmonvic, and Andrew Bynum to go with Kobe's usual superb play.
Final Assesment: Appointment television. Interrupt any conversations or helping any parents/grandparents with newly received electronic equipment to watch this. Mom is never going to figure out her iPod anyways so just watch the Suns beat the Lakers.
Game 3: Seattle @ Portland - Continuing our theme of meal related analogies, this game would be like a dessert of rice pudding. I've heard of it, I'm vaguely familiar with the contents of it but I don't have any true desire to actually indulge in it. Kind of like this game. It was supposed to be Oden vs. Durant. Now, its Durant vs. Channing Frye? For true NBA fans, this game could be a treat. The Blazers are amongst the hottest teams in the league brimming with young, likeable talent. Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw and Channing Frye amongst others. Meanwhile, the Supersonics have Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and a trio of 7 footers that are a statistical anomaly. Consider, given the odds that there would be 3 seven-footers on one team and given the amount of 7 foot frea-er, people, there are in the world, you'd think they'd have something in common. Nope. Robert Swift a 7 foot red head from Bakersfield, CA. Johan Petro is a 7 foot French guy with a giant forehead. And Mouhamed Sene is from Senegal. They don't even have the same continent of origin in common! On second thought, here is the common characteristic: They all suck.
Final Assessment: Don't prevent someone from watching the new DVD they just purchased to watch this game but if the television isn't occupied, flip it on. If its an up tempo game with some good scoring, settle in. If its a couple of young teams pretending to be professionals, just use it as a reliable flip back option for something else.
That's it for now. Back later this week with more blogs. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.
Jody