The NBA Finals - Really?

I am not (repeat, AM NOT) a sports fan. I used to like to play them when I was young and in shape and good at things. I've gotten bigger and more fragile since then, and don't play anymore. Softball occasionally, because I have to keep up the stereotype somehow, but I haven't played in almost a year. I don't like to watch sports on TV...the commentators are annoying, and I don't need a pre-show, half-time show, and post-show to analyze every single second and what little moves every player did that were good or bad.

I never know who to root for. Unless a California team is playing, they automatically get my faux support because I am Californian, born and raised. I have to be told, by either my girlfriend, friends or family (whoever happens to be watching that I am with) who to be rooting for. When I was a child, I used to ask my father, "What color do we want to win?" when he would watch football, so I knew which team to yell "Yay!" for. If the 49ers weren't playing, I had no idea. Now, my team by default is the Miami Dolphins. I don't particularly care about them, but they are my girlfriend's team, so I root for them.

So this NBA Finals thing...I don't care about basketball. I cared about basketball in middle school because I was tall and good at it, could play with the boys and kick their butts. In high school, the team was too competitive for me to even consider trying out, and I gave up on the sport. I have never, ever liked watching it on TV. Especially the NBA. I think they're all overpaid babies to get compensated to get exercise and rub up against eachother.

My girlfriend thinks differently. She played basketball her whole life, into highschool, and could have probably played in college, if she'd gone. She loves to watch any and all sports on TV. So now that it is the Finals, any time it is a game night it's on. During football season, every pro or college game that was on was projected on our tv screen. March Madness was a flurry of games and pools and watching ever conceivable matchup. And now the NBA finals. The ridiculous thing is that she doesn't like either team. She can't stand the Celtics because they are whiny little bitches, and cocky sons of bitches. She can't stand the Lakers because, although they to are little whiners, not as many of them are cocky bastards. The only reason she's rooting for the Lakers is because she hates them less than the Celtics.

Watching last night's Game 5 was painful and boring...painful because the Lakers got killed at every turn, and boring because it didn't hold my attention until something happened that caused my girlfriend to have a reaction something like, "Are you fucking kidding me? That was such a fucking travel!", or "Where's the foul?!?", or "Did you see that? Those refs are fucking blind." Repeat this for 2.5 hours and you have my evening. I don't understand most of the rules of NBA basketball, and I think a lot of the things that are allowed are little bitch moves that shouldn't be, but what do I know? So she had to explain things to me every few minutes. This is how watching sports with us goes. I get angry about a move, she explains why it's okay and how it is strategy, I pretend to be okay with it, but am still secretly annoyed that it's allowed.

The point is, I don't know why I get so riled up over the game, because I don't care. Perhaps it's because she cares, that I get pulled in? If I'm not bored, I'm asking questions and getting upset when our Lakers can't get a rebound, or sink a 3-point shot to save their lives (or the game). Luckily for her (us, I guess), the next two games are home games for the Lakers, and we may have a shot to win the series, and the Championship.

Now it sounds like I care, doesn't it? Hmm.

-R.