The return of tennis

That’s the GW Bridge and Hudson River in the background.

When I was in high school, I was crazy about tennis. During the summer between my freshmen year and sophomore year, I played tennis almost everyday. I played so much I convinced my mom that I needed my own stringing machine because it was cheaper to string my own rackets. I borrowed tennis books and magazines from the library. I watched as many matches of the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open as I could. I’d serve in dark and play against imaginary opponents on the handball courts. All the time spent on the court that summer and in the fall paid off when I made the varsity team in spring. Tennis, to say the least, was a big part of my high school experience.

After high school, I continued to play tennis but not at the same frequency or passion as I once did. College, work and life got in the way.

Lately, I’ve been playing with a Meetup group at Fort Washington Park over the weekends. Playing tennis in the city is a half day production. With only so much space on this island, tennis courts come at a premium. The courts are about seven miles away from where I live, which in New York time and distance, means approximately one hour door to door. And it cost $10 for two hours plus $5 for a round trip subway ticket. All of this is unheard of anywhere else in the states, but you do what you got to do when you want to hit.

I’ve also been walking around the apartment with the tennis racket in my hand, making sure I pull back far enough on my backhand swing that I feel a slight strain in my right shoulder, swinging at an imaginary ball, and trying not to hit the girlfriend as she walks by. I spend way too much time looking and pining at tennis shoes, rackets, shirts and head wear that I shouldn’t buy. I’m even writing a blog post about tennis, all this to say that I think the passion has returned.

I can’t wait for Sunday.

Thoughts on the NBA Finals

Just wanted to capture some thoughts I had as I sat through the last four NBA finals game.

Disclosure: I am not a Heat fan. I use to be a Heat fan but that was when Timmy Hardaway, Zo, Eddie Jones, and Harold “Baby Jordan” Miner played for them (see picture below). Then Shaq went to the Heat and the love was all but gone. And then his majesty joined and it became too easy to root against the Heat. This of course puts me in an uncomfortable position with the gf because she’s the world’s biggest Heat fan. More on that later. I rooted for OKC during the finals, not because I like them, but because I dislike Lebron. I’m a hater. That’s fine.

Onto my armchair broadcaster commentary.

My cousin bought the Heat hat for me while I was vacationing in Taiwan. Nice bangs, Tiff.

Shane Battier and the rest of the Miami bench sold their souls to the devil

How else can you explain their other worldly accuracy from the three point line? If Mike Miller and his broken back didn’t make seven out of eight of his threes (or whatever the stat line is), there would be a game six on Saturday. LBJ wouldn’t have this ring without Battier, Miller, Chalmers or Cole stepping up big time. And who knew that Bosh was a three point threat? I am happy for Juwan Howard. He got to play in the final minutes of game six and now he can retire with a ring. So lucky.

Kevin Durant was underutilized

I think KD scored 32 points in game six, but it seemed like he didn’t get any touches for long stretches of the game. So much of OKC’s offense was focused on getting to the basket via one-on-one or one-on-many situations. Durant basically became a spectator when Westbrook or Harden took it to the hole. OKC could have at least incorporated the league’s most dangerous scorer in those situations by using Durant  and Westbrook/Harden in pick and rolls. Miami was doubling up on Westbrook off of pick and rolls because someone offensively useless was setting the pick. I doubt the double team would come if Durant set the pick. Shoot the J!

OKC did not adjust its personnel to match Miami

I’m a Scott Brooks fan now that I know he went UCI. But I have to give the coaching edge to Spoelstra because some of the moves Brooks made was puzzling. Why would you have Ibaka and Perkins in the game at the same time? Ibaka is barely there on offense and Perkins is completely useless. With the two of them on the floor, it becomes a 3 on 5 game on offense. Perkins was pretty useless on defense as well. Who is he supposed to guard? Miami didn’t have a low post big that Perkins needed to guard.

And why was Harden guarding Lebron? Lebron just towers over and out muscles Harden in the blocks. I thought Sefalosha did a better job on Lebron, but he’s pretty inept on offense which is why Harden was out there. Harden, however, was a no-show offense in this series, probably because exhausted himself from guarding Lebron.

The NBA needs to do something about the charging/blocking rules

I can’t quite remember the last time I’ve seen a PG like Westbrook or Derek Rose cut to the basket with such quickness and finish with such finesse or power. It’s exciting and which is why I’m tired of seeing players take charges against another player going to the hole. Seeing a sweet move to the basket only to be negated by a charge call is so frustrating. I’m not sure what the Association can do. Make the restricted area larger? Institute a rule for flopping to discourage defenders from sliding in to take a charge? Whatever it is, I’d like to see more rim shattering moves to the rim without Battier getting in the way.

NBA officiating is so arbitrary, especially when your team is losing

There were some horrible calls and no-calls during the finals. Most of them were in favor of my Miami. That’s why they won….. No, I don’t believe the last part, but that’s just the way it feels when things aren’t going your teams way.

Sports can get too real sometimes

We go crazy for sports. We kill. We set cars on fire. We tear things down. We stop talking to each other. It’s like religion and politics. Without going into all the gory details, I’ll just say that a lesson learned from this NBA finals is to separate the game from life, especially when your girlfriend is a fanatic for the opposing team.

I can still smell the Heat


Play darts and earn $1,000,000

Kobe Bryant, J.D.

ESPN came out with their best paid athletes survey again.

Aside from the usual suspects you’d find on the list – i.e. A-Rod @ $30M/year – there are quite a few “athletes” that get paid doing what they do. Yes, I put quotes around athletes because some of the athletes compete in games or weekend hobbies. But don’t get me wrong. I’m not hating. If I could play darts well too, I’d be doing that for a living (a guy made close to $1M throwing darts

See the list below.

Kobe Bryant, the top-paid bball player, needs to moonlight as a lawyer when he’s not busy shooting the J. I guess $25M plus endorsements just isn’t enough these days…

Sport Athlete League, competition Earnings
Auto racing Fernando Alonso Formula 1, Ferrari, 2011 salary and prize money $40,000,000
Badminton (women) Wang Yihan BWF Superseries, Grand Prix Gold and Continental Championships, 2011 prize money $277,550
Badminton (men) Lee Chong Wei BWF Superseries, Grand Prix Gold and Continental Championships, 2011 prize money $267,350
Billiards Shane Van Boening Billiards, 2011 prize money $160,450
Bowling Sean Rash PBA Tour, 2011-12 prize money $140,250
Darts Phil Taylor Pro Darts Corp. 2011 tournament prize money $938,497
Distance running (men) Emmanuel Mutai Distance running (2011 prize money from various events) $815,000
Distance running (women) Liliya Shobukhova Distance running (2011 prize money from various events)* $720,000
Eating Joey Chestnut Major League Eating, 2011 prize money $205,000
Equestrian Rolf-Göran Bengtsson Show Jumping, 2011 prize money $1,161,280
Fishing Kevin VanDam Bassmaster Elite Series, 2011 prize money $706,500
Horse Racing (jockey) Ramon A. Dominguez Horse Racing, 2011** $20,567,032
Sled dog racing Dallas Seavey Iditarod, 2012 first place prize money*** $50,400