Pooh
05-02-2004, 09:04 PM
May 2, 2004
As you certainly know by now, the Pacers do not play another basketball game until mid-August. Or so it seems. Between now and the first game of their next series, the team's backcourt could learn a foreign language, save the whales, become proficient at cabinetry repair and still have time to experience Paris in the springtime.
This worries me.
Not because the Pacers will forget how the game is played and fall on their faces in Game 1 against New Orleans or Miami. Whoever they play next -- and my choice is New Orleans for the food -- they're going to win in five or six games. The New Jersey Nets had lots of down time the past two springs, and they reached the Finals twice.
The issue is, I fear your Indiana Pacers are going to go nuts.
"I just realized this week how bad television really is," Jermaine O'Neal said the other day, contemplating his new-found freedom from hoops. "The other night, I was watching the Health Channel where they do those live surgeries. It's the most interesting thing I've seen so far. They were doing tummy tucks, stuff like that."
He paused.
"I need to get back to work," he said, smiling.
The NBA, which last season dumbly went from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven format for the first round, has stretched this thing out more than the last "Lord of the Rings" flick. In the case of New Orleans and Miami, it could last as long as the Summer Olympics.
If it was great theater, maybe you wouldn't mind. But it's mostly been noncompetitive. And the one series that has been competitive has been harder to watch than Fear Factor. How bad was that first round? I heard people talking about actually watching hockey. Of their free will.
If it's bad for us -- the slothful multitudes -- consider the athletes, who are hopeless creatures of habit. Now, after a killer regular season that featured back-to-backs and worse, they find themselves forced into semi-retirement.
"I have different routines that I'll do," Austin Croshere said. "Three days before a game, I have a shooting routine, two days, one day. I don't have a 10-days-before-a-game routine, so I'm trying to put together these hybrid workouts."
Perhaps the worst part of waiting for Miami and New Orleans to finish what feels like a best-of-59 series is actually having to watch the games. Unless, of course, there's a Bunion Removal Marathon on the Health Channel, and then all bets are off. Meanwhile, whatever buzz the Pacers generated with their sweep of the Celtics is gone, at least for another couple of days.
"I hate to see it die down," O'Neal said. "Now they're talking about not playing until, what, next Thursday?"
Actually, August.
OK, Thursday.
Oh, and did I mention my fear of injury? As you know, the vast majority of injuries occur in or near the household. These guys are spending a lot of time at home these days.
One day, Reggie Miller is building an addition to the guest's maid's quarters, the next thing he's out three-to-six weeks with a nail in his hand.
Hey, these things happen.
"I've been doing some stuff around the house," Croshere said. "We got a high chair the other day, so I put that together. And flowers. That's on my to-do list this week. Plants and flowers."
Croshere, on his hands and knees, spreading mulch?
"Uhhh, no," he said. "I just point. Put one there. One there. One over there."
I'm not beginning to suggest that these guys aren't enjoying every spare moment with their loved ones. Croshere and his wife have a baby, and they're planning a rare trip to a movie. O'Neal, who is engaged, has made plans almost daily, taking his fiancee and daughter to miniature golf, bowling, dog-walking, and whatever else comes to mind.
Cherished moments, all.
But, well, there's a limit.
Have you ever noticed that when an athlete or coach retires, they say they want to stay home and spend more time with their family, then five weeks later, they're coming out of retirement?
There's a reason.
Nobody cheers when you take out the garbage.
Ultimately, I feel like O'Neal has the best idea. Since the end of the Celtics series, he said he's done something he's never done before: Take a regular afternoon nap.
Wake us when the games start again, will you?
As you certainly know by now, the Pacers do not play another basketball game until mid-August. Or so it seems. Between now and the first game of their next series, the team's backcourt could learn a foreign language, save the whales, become proficient at cabinetry repair and still have time to experience Paris in the springtime.
This worries me.
Not because the Pacers will forget how the game is played and fall on their faces in Game 1 against New Orleans or Miami. Whoever they play next -- and my choice is New Orleans for the food -- they're going to win in five or six games. The New Jersey Nets had lots of down time the past two springs, and they reached the Finals twice.
The issue is, I fear your Indiana Pacers are going to go nuts.
"I just realized this week how bad television really is," Jermaine O'Neal said the other day, contemplating his new-found freedom from hoops. "The other night, I was watching the Health Channel where they do those live surgeries. It's the most interesting thing I've seen so far. They were doing tummy tucks, stuff like that."
He paused.
"I need to get back to work," he said, smiling.
The NBA, which last season dumbly went from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven format for the first round, has stretched this thing out more than the last "Lord of the Rings" flick. In the case of New Orleans and Miami, it could last as long as the Summer Olympics.
If it was great theater, maybe you wouldn't mind. But it's mostly been noncompetitive. And the one series that has been competitive has been harder to watch than Fear Factor. How bad was that first round? I heard people talking about actually watching hockey. Of their free will.
If it's bad for us -- the slothful multitudes -- consider the athletes, who are hopeless creatures of habit. Now, after a killer regular season that featured back-to-backs and worse, they find themselves forced into semi-retirement.
"I have different routines that I'll do," Austin Croshere said. "Three days before a game, I have a shooting routine, two days, one day. I don't have a 10-days-before-a-game routine, so I'm trying to put together these hybrid workouts."
Perhaps the worst part of waiting for Miami and New Orleans to finish what feels like a best-of-59 series is actually having to watch the games. Unless, of course, there's a Bunion Removal Marathon on the Health Channel, and then all bets are off. Meanwhile, whatever buzz the Pacers generated with their sweep of the Celtics is gone, at least for another couple of days.
"I hate to see it die down," O'Neal said. "Now they're talking about not playing until, what, next Thursday?"
Actually, August.
OK, Thursday.
Oh, and did I mention my fear of injury? As you know, the vast majority of injuries occur in or near the household. These guys are spending a lot of time at home these days.
One day, Reggie Miller is building an addition to the guest's maid's quarters, the next thing he's out three-to-six weeks with a nail in his hand.
Hey, these things happen.
"I've been doing some stuff around the house," Croshere said. "We got a high chair the other day, so I put that together. And flowers. That's on my to-do list this week. Plants and flowers."
Croshere, on his hands and knees, spreading mulch?
"Uhhh, no," he said. "I just point. Put one there. One there. One over there."
I'm not beginning to suggest that these guys aren't enjoying every spare moment with their loved ones. Croshere and his wife have a baby, and they're planning a rare trip to a movie. O'Neal, who is engaged, has made plans almost daily, taking his fiancee and daughter to miniature golf, bowling, dog-walking, and whatever else comes to mind.
Cherished moments, all.
But, well, there's a limit.
Have you ever noticed that when an athlete or coach retires, they say they want to stay home and spend more time with their family, then five weeks later, they're coming out of retirement?
There's a reason.
Nobody cheers when you take out the garbage.
Ultimately, I feel like O'Neal has the best idea. Since the end of the Celtics series, he said he's done something he's never done before: Take a regular afternoon nap.
Wake us when the games start again, will you?