Sports spectatorship psychology is infuriating. Why is it that, after not caring at all for the best part of three years, it suddenly has become very important to me that the UT Vols keep progressing in the Men's Basketball NCAA tournament? Talk about fair-weather fan-dom! Also, why is it that we watch games that can rarely actually be enjoyable to watch? If we really care about the result, we can almost never be happy until the final whistle (or buzzer). You see, in soccer, my team has to be 3-0 up to be safe, and this never happens. 2-0 is not enough because the other team can score one then put the pressure on. Likewise, in basketball, if you haven't got a 15-point lead then you can never relax.
So last weekend there were two games to watch: Norwich versus Sunderland in soccer and the Vols against Mercer in the NCAA Round of 32. Norwich won 2-0, but we were never safe. The Vols, on the other hand, were 15 points or more in the lead virtually throughout. So only that game could actually be enjoyed in real time. Now, as for Michigan in the Sweet Sixteen, I doubt there will be any pleasure there until, possibly, the very, very end.
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2014
Thursday, September 26, 2013
And When They're 45?
I'm currently at a workshop in Lausanne, Switzerland and one of the lecturers is Dorothee Kern from Brandeis University. She was point guard in the East German National Basketball team in the 1980s and has kept playing, leading the German National Over-45s to winning the world championships this year. I asked her about the USA team. Given that they're so good at college, how did they do? Dorothee answered that they didn't even have a team.
This is sad, but jives with my experience of adults doing sports in the USA. They are active at school, jamming the soccer fields with kids playing soccer under the adoring eyes of parents, but by the age of 20 everything has stopped. Inactivity, indolence, unhealthy obesity.
The next Master's World Basketball championships is in Orlando, sponsored by ESPN. Maybe the USA won;t have a team there, either?
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