The Bulls - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/25/basketball

The Bulls wreaking havoc on the system and dominating just about every game that they touched, was my first introduction into professional sports. Before that year, my mom would ocasionally sit me down and watch a college game of basketball (yes my mom, not my dad) and the olympics would always get me infront of the TV to see just how much we were doing in the fine art of 400 meter hurdles, but I was never really into basketball or any professional sport, and then it happened.

Wednesday nights were always young men activities at church. Boy Scouts was always on Wednesday, and it's practically a law in the church that Wednesdays are the time that teenagers get together and do activities. When I turned 11, I finally graduated from Cub Scouts, and started to go to Boy Scouts, but my first week (or maybe it was my second week, either way it was close to when I just started going to the 'big kids' scouts) the Busby kids, along side the Bruners, Brumetts, and whoever else were there, gathered around a tiny 8 inch television to watch "the game".

The image was in black and white, you could hardly see what in the world was going on, but the tiny classroom next to the stage at church was full of excitement with the boys in there hanging on to every word that the announcer was saying. For that night, the game that the Bulls were in, was their life.

And I couldn't understand it for the life of me.

I still don't get professional sports of any kind. I can sort of get behind e-sports because I can understand the complexity of the games a bit better, but the obsession some people show over sports and competitions has never stuck home with me. There's never been a game that I've walked away from and can remember every single minute and say it was the best thing ever that has happened to me. I can't keep track of people's ratios and rebounding stats during the middle of the game, and I don't care. I don't care how many fouls someone has, or what their percentages were all season, and I don't care about their personal history. I don't get why it's so important if someone hits or misses a shot, and just why I need to be jumping up and down screaming when it's a total wipeout of a game and the team that I'm cheering for is mopping the floor with whoever they're up against. Even in close call games I get bored and annoyed because it starts to turn into the last 10 minutes taking longer to get through than the first 75% of the game. Then heaven help us all if there is overtime, I don't want any of that. Just finish the game already! I don't care how evenly matched you are! I want to get home and do anything but have to sit in a plastic chair that's super uncomfortable watching people that I know, and some that I don't know, make utter fools of themselves for people that have no clue who they are.

Sports are fun to play, but never fun to watch.

I don't care if you're talking about golf, tennis, football, basketball, or whatever sport it is that you call your favorite, I'm firmly under the belief that sports of any kind are better played than watched. As great as Jordan and the Bulls were, and as amazing as their records were, it was more fun to go out during PE and shoot horrible shots with people I knew. Why get worked up over a game that I have no control over?

That leads to the next topic that seems to be one that some people doubt, although I'm a nerd, and sort of enjoy games that involve dice, numbers, and controllers, I do enjoy PLAYING sports. I may not be that great at them, but I enjoy playing sports. I like competition, and I like to run around and play games, I just have no desire to ever watch it, even if it is some of the 'best players the game has ever seen' or whatever else you want to throw at me.