Sports' Guilty Pleasures

I'm not sure what exactly gave me this idea, but the other day I started to think about my sports-related guilty pleasures. I'm talking about all the things in sports that we're really not supposed to like (for reasons like sportsmanship, personal saftey, and "doing what's good for the game"). So here's a preliminary list of the things in sports that I enjoy, when I'm really not supposed to:

* Any premeditated endzone celebration
* Injured NBA players who wear gaudy suits while sitting on the bench
* Rickey Henderson
* College mascot costumes
* Allen Iverson's fashion accessories
* Bill Walton's exaggerations
* ESPN's Playmakers
* Any halftime event involving dogs
* The Wave
* College football teams that run up the score
* When the "halo rule" is violated on a punt return
* Gymnasts and ice skaters who fall during their routines
* Ray Lewis
* The songs and chants at European soccer matches
* Bench-clearing brawls
* Basketball refs who make exaggerated gesticulations whenever they call a foul
* Rushing the field and tearing down the goalposts

 
I Believe in Them

Am I the only one who's really excited about the upcoming movie Miracle? Sure it looks like a fairly jingoistic, family-friendly take of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, but I can't help but get pumped up after seeing the trailer and commercials for it (I'm a sucker for Aerosmith's "Dream On" and Queen's "We Will Rock You"). It's kind of surprising that there's never been a movie made about it, but Miracle seems to have done a good job in creating a legitimate reenactment. Kurt Russell looks like he was born to play coach Herb Brooks and I love those retro "USA" block jerseys. Here's hoping Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione and the rest of the original Team USA players will be prominently involved in the promotion of this film- they deserve the chance to tell their story to the younger generation (even though we all know the ending). Folks, we could have the next Rocky on our hands- something the whole country can rally around. I'm envisioning people going to the cinemas draped in the American flag and theater-wide chants of "USA! USA!"

And this reminds me- about a year ago, I read an item in the Hollywood Reporter about another inspirational sports movie in development. American Beauty's Wes Bentley is set to star in The Game of Their Lives, about America's second-greatest international sports upset: The United States' 1-0 victory over England in the 1950 World Cup. It appears that the movie is on track to get released this year, but no date is set. I hope the filmmakers do a good job with this, since 1950 World Cup win is one of the truly underrated sports moments in our history.

 
25 Large

There's a very interesting debate going on at ESPN's Page 2: who are the greatest athletes of the past 25 years? It's one of those great questions which can be debated endlessly, with no objective way to determine the list's order. Which is why I love stuff like this. Anyone can vote for their top 25, but it's a shame that we'll have to wait till June 8 for the poll's results. Here's what my top 10 looked like:

10. Lance Armstrong
9. Martina Navratilova
8. Jerry Rice
7. Magic Johnson
6. Joe Montana
5. Larry Bird
4. Carl Lewis
3. Barry Bonds
2. Michael Jordan
1. Wayne Gretzky

My Bay Area roots may have caused a bias towards Bonds, Montana and Rice, but I feel pretty solid about my picks. I've always thought that Bird was better than Magic (he would routinely take over a game in a way that Johnson rarely did) and that Carl Lewis was never fully appreciated by the sporting public.

To me, The Great One was an easy choice for the top spot. No other athlete in history dominated his sport the way Gretzky did. The man has nine MVP trophies. His #99 jersey is retired- by every team in the league. Gretzky's career stats give you an idea of how much better he was than even his nearest competitor. In hockey, scoring titles are determined by points, where 1 goal=1 assist=1 point. Well, not only does Gretzky have more points than anyone (2857), more goals than anyone (894), but he has more assists (1963) than anyone else has points. That means that if The Great One had never even scored a goal in his career, he would still be the NHL's alltime scoring leader. Unreal.

 
Hey... This Guy Might Be Good at Basketball!

One of the stories being lost in a sports world dominated by the BCS/Pete Rose/NFL Playoff juggernaut is the fact that LeBron James is already one of the best dozen players in the NBA. We all fell all over ourselves to hype him up in the year before his NBA career, but now that he's actually playing basketball few people appreciate the fact that he's even better than advertised? The Sports Guy says it best: "Now LeBron is playing like a Dream Teamer. Not that the guys who made up their minds about him in those first few weeks would know that... For many, sampling LeBron was like trying out the new Chicken McNuggets: 'Yeah, I saw him once, he wasn't that good.' And that was that."

The question I have is: given all the preseason hype, LeBron's extraordinary game thus far, and the fact that he plays in a conference with few stars, how the hell is James only fourth in all-star votes among Eastern conference guards? Don't other NBA fans want to see LeBron start in the league's showcase event? And by the way, the lingering popularity of underachieving, soft, already-past-his-prime Vince Carter (the leading All-Star vote-getter) absolutely baffles me.

 
The Final Score Didn't Do This Blowout Justice

Another year, another Stanford win in Tuscon. I suppose we really shouldn't be all that surprised that the Cardinal won at Arizona today, given that this was the the fourth year in a row that it happened. But you still have to marvel at how much poise Stanford exhibits, especially since so many of our players play with such raw intensity and wear their hearts on their jerseys. Another great all-around team effort (with five guys in double figures), and remarkably suffocating defense-- and we would have won by 25 without all of our sloppy turnovers. Given that Stanford has now beaten Kansas, Gonzaga and Arizona, all away from Maples, is there any reason why we shouldn't be ranked number 1?

 
FAVES OF 2003: The Shows

While the movies of the last year may have collectively stunk, 2003 was a banner year for television. Basic cable finally started putting out some quality shows, several network dramas came into their own and reality TV made the leap from fad to firmly entrenched TV genre. But what I really thought was interesting about TV this year was the sheer number of programs. There are so many channels with original programs and many of them have "seasons" that only last 10-13 episodes. So there was bound to be good stuff out there:

20. The Jamie Kennedy Experiment (The WB)
19. Doggy-fizzle Tele-vizzle (MTV)
18. Super-Secret TV Formulas (Vh1)
17. Playmakers (ESPN)
16. Prime Time Glick (Comedy Central)
15. The first three weeks of American Idol (Fox)
14. Reno 911 (Comedy Central)
13. Kingpin (NBC)
12. Arrested Development (Fox)
11. Platinum (UPN)
10. 24 (Fox)
9. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo)
8. Without a Trace (CBS)
7. Making the Band II (MTV)
6. The Daily Show (Comedy Central)

5. The O.C. (Fox)

Alright, I know I slammed this show on this blog after the first episode. I thought the plot wasn't compelling enough and that Ryan wasn't emotive enough to be the lead character. But then a funny thing happened on the way to Felicity-ville: the show funnier, twistier and more clever than anyone realized was possible. The seamless weaving of storylines, the balance between the parents' lives and the teens' lives, the snappy jokes at the show's own expense... it all adds up to a very entertaining show that got better as it went along. This is a guilty pleasure that I really don't feel guilty about.

4. Chappelle's Show (Comedy Central)

I really hope that this show vaults Dave Chappelle to the heights Chris Rock reached in 1997 during his emergence as the nation's premier black comic. Chappelle's Show has it all- unflinching political commentary, celebrity-skewering, race jokes, impressions and above-all consistency. When's the last time a sketch comedy show has actually been renewed for a second season?

3. Pardon the Interruption (ESPN)

I've praised this show effusively on this blog, even naming it the best show of the '02-'03 television season. Kornheiser and Wilbon tackle the sports issues of the day in an informative, entertaining matter, offering their insights with a fun spirit you don't get from other sports outlets. I have to subtract some points however, since lately they've been including too much non-sports related content on the show. Do we really need a 90-second debate on last night's episode of Average Joe?

2. Scrubs (NBC)

I really hadn't paid much attention to this comedy, now in its third season, until last summer when I started watching some reruns. After just a few episodes I was completely sold-- how could I have ignored the smartest, most hilarious sitcom on TV? Terrific acting, witty scripts off-the-wall jokes have me laughing every week. So why does NBC periodically shaft this show whenever it's doing one of its inane "Super-size nights" of Friends and Will & Grace? Scrubs is unquestionably the best thing they have going.

1. Six Feet Under (HBO)

The Fisher family story has the power, depth and humanity to make the viewer not only watch to see what happens next, but to think about why the characters make the decisions they do. With characters so well-drawn you can't help but see Nate, David, Claire and everyone else as real people that you root for and care about. Just six short months until season four...

 
FAVES OF 2003: The Movies

While trying to come up with a top ten list, I realized what a truly awful year this was for movies. The spring had few notable releases, the summer was filled with disappointments and this fall just hasn't produced anything that's made me want to run to the theater. I don't think there's a single 2003 movie that I would buy on DVD. So rather than a top ten that includes good-but-not-so-great films like Seabiscuit, Bend It Like Beckham and X2, I'll narrow it down to a top 5.

5. Love Actually
As I've written previously, I thought that this movie had the cleverness, wit and sharpness that you just don't get in American comedies. There were several standout performances and Love Actually successfully balanced nine different storylines without underdeveloping its characters.

4. Lost In Translation
A charming, thoughtful character study featuring a pair great performances. It manages to be funny without telling jokes and it's powerful without spouting any lessons. A breath of fresh air.

3. Better Luck Tomorrow
Some indies are considered "small movies," but this one was tiny. Made for just $250,000, BTL is the story of a group of Asian-American teens as they battle disillusionment in suburbia. Despite some plot-points that push the limits of believability, the movie remains startlingly honest as we see a group of smart boys caught in a downward spiral of recklessness.

2. Mystic River
Basically, everything you've read about this movie is true: it's dark, haunting, tragic, beautifully acted, and really damn good.

1. 21 Grams
Sean Penn's second movie of the year is also his second in my top two. This movie is so heavy that after watching it you just want to lie in your bed, stare at the ceiling and contemplate the meaning of life. All three lead performances are Oscar-worthy and Naomi Watts is just heart wrenchingly good. After this and Mulholland Drive, its safe to say that as an actress, Watts is in a class by herself.