11/23/24
June 10, 2012
Heat Beat Celtics, Advance to NBA Finals: LeBron James had 31 points and 12 rebounds in the Miami Heat's 101-88 victory over the Boston Celtics in game 7 of the Eastern conference finals, sending the Heat to their second-straight NBA Finals. Dwyane Wade had 23 points and Chris Bosh 19, sending the big three to face the Oklahoma City Thunder in game 1 Tuesday.
posted by rcade to basketball at 12:44 PM - 31 comments
They wanted to catch the Pacquiao fight.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:29 AM on June 10, 2012
Durant and Lebron is the matchup that America wanted, according to Shaq. It does seem that Lebron started performing better after KD and OKC beat the Spurs. Maybe Lebron needed some competition as the best player on the planet.
posted by bperk at 12:49 PM on June 10, 2012
An article written after the Celtics won Game 5 in Miami channeled Ernie Accorsi's comment on Eli Manning as the Giants' were lining up to begin their first 4th quarter Super Bowl winning drive against the Pats:
To wit: if LeBron is a championship caliber player and the Heat are a championship caliber team, this is when they show it.
They answered the bell.
No Spurs - Celtics final. No country for old men.
I'm starting to feel a little bad for the Heat.
Mention OKC and people say "what a team!"
Mention Miami and people say "that's where the one naked guy ate the face off of the other naked guy".
"And growled at the cops".
posted by beaverboard at 01:18 PM on June 10, 2012
They wanted to catch the Pacquiao fight.
With the same judges the Celtics might have won.
Any reason for that, other than being bad sports?
Because post game handshakes are silly. If you want to shake hands, great. If you just lost a chance at a championship and don't feel like congratulating the opponent you just spent the last seven games trying to destroy, I'm fine with it. We ask these guys to want this more than anything and then expect them to just drop all that heat in a second?
posted by tron7 at 02:46 PM on June 10, 2012
"that's where the one naked guy ate the face off of the other naked guy"
Any chance we get a MMA fighter or boxer with nickname of "Bath Salts?"
posted by tron7 at 02:49 PM on June 10, 2012
Because post game handshakes are silly. If you want to shake hands, great. If you just lost a chance at a championship and don't feel like congratulating the opponent you just spent the last seven games trying to destroy, I'm fine with it. We ask these guys to want this more than anything and then expect them to just drop all that heat in a second?
Is it silly in hockey too?
I regard the handshake line and post game exchange to be a sign of good sportsmanship. That despite the "battle" you just waged, you recognize that what you're doing is playing a game and respect and honour still have a part.
Any chance we get a MMA fighter or boxer with nickname of "Bath Salts?"
MMA already has a fighter named "Uncle Creepy", their marketing department is probably deciding who to bless with the "Bath Salts" moniker even now.
posted by tommybiden at 03:13 PM on June 10, 2012
We ask these guys to want this more than anything and then expect them to just drop all that heat in a second?
If small children can manage it, why is it too much to ask of adult millionaires? Skipping the ceremonial exchange of pleasantries makes you look like a chump.
posted by rcade at 04:28 PM on June 10, 2012
Agreed. Sportsmanship is what separates ourselves from the animals and the French.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 05:56 PM on June 10, 2012
If small children can manage it, why is it too much to ask of adult millionaires?
Small children recognize it for what it is--a game. Adult millionaires see the game as a paycheck and the path to glory.
posted by roberts at 07:08 PM on June 10, 2012
Adult millionaires see the game as a paycheck and the path to glory.
If it's a paycheck, then normal human beings can separate sufficiently from it on an emotional level to be civil to their opponents/co-workers.
If it's glory, then you are only as good as your competition, and they are worthy enough for you to be civil to.
posted by Etrigan at 07:28 PM on June 10, 2012
Small children recognize it for what it is -- a game.
Not universally. To the competitive ones winning is everything, and yet they still demonstrate post-game sportsmanship. It's a bit sad to expect less of adults.
posted by rcade at 08:30 PM on June 10, 2012
My small town baseball league back home switched from doing the post-game handshake line to doing nothing after the game about ten years ago. Nothing changed. Everyone still shot the shit over some post-game beers in the stands. The handshake line doesn't create sportsmanship, it's just a show. I don't like ceremony to begin with and this one seems especially humiliating and pointless.
posted by tron7 at 10:35 PM on June 10, 2012
My small town baseball league back home switched from doing the post-game handshake line to doing nothing after the game about ten years ago.
That's baseball.
After a hard fought playoff series (or game, for football), it's customary for the teams to mingle/shake hands/congratulate in any sport where there are multiple people on the field of play for both teams.
Football, hockey, soccer, basketball, lacrosse..
Only baseball doesn't do that.
Heck, even golfers and tennis players still shake hands after they are done.
posted by grum@work at 01:11 AM on June 11, 2012
Only baseball doesn't do that.
The winning team in baseball typically has a handshake line on the field after the last out is recorded. In a couple of playoff series in the mid-00s, the Cardinals actually had a handshake line with the opposing team. I know one such series was the NLDS series against the Padres in 2004.
posted by holden at 11:38 AM on June 11, 2012
Bruins out in 2 rounds, Celtics out before the finals, Red Sox looking like a .500 team for the season, what in the hell am I going to do until the NFL exhibition season starts? Having been spoiled by varying degrees of post-season success for lo these many years, it really feels strange not to be rooting for a Boston team late in June. I'm neither bragging nor complaining, it's just the way it is, I guess.
posted by Howard_T at 03:58 PM on June 11, 2012
I hear ya; the frustration thing is they aren't crap teams; it's that the New England teams are seemingly getting a bit of karmic payback for the charmed decade, where we'll get close but no cigar.
I know I can't complain, but things like the potential 19-0 season being lost to the friggin' Giants with a minute left in the Superbowl.. only to have Brady lost the whole following season in the first game, and then finally make it back 4 years later only to lose to the Giants again in another close but winnable game. You have the Celtics restoring their glory with the big 3 in 2007-2008, only to have a monster start derailed by injury the following year, and a Finals loss and Conference Finals loss in 7 games. You have the darling Red Sox of the mid-decade turning into a star-crossed mess of a bloated payroll more befitting the 80's and 90's era-Sox.
Again, I can't complain- the New England teams had as good a decade as you could have, winning a championship in all 4 major sports, including multiples from two teams and chances from the other two. Asking for even more would be greedy- but I guess it's the idea that it's almost better to just have a mediocre season that ends early, or in early playoff rounds, than to get close like the Celtics did, only to watch it slip away, or have the Red Sox blow the playoffs on the final game of the season like last year, etc.
posted by hincandenza at 07:02 PM on June 11, 2012
I'll pray for you.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 07:14 PM on June 11, 2012
Again, I can't complain- the New England teams had as good a decade as you could have, winning a championship in all 4 major sports, including multiples from two teams and chances from the other two. Asking for even more would be greedy- but I guess it's the idea that it's almost better to just have a mediocre season that ends early, or in early playoff rounds, than to get close like the Celtics did, only to watch it slip away, or have the Red Sox blow the playoffs on the final game of the season like last year, etc.
I'm pretty sure any Toronto Maple Leafs fan wholeheartedly disagrees with you on that one...while you might get heartbreak to get so close, you get a complex wondering what's wrong with you after the 6th or so season outside of the playoffs : )
posted by dfleming at 07:24 PM on June 11, 2012
but I guess it's the idea that it's almost better to just have a mediocre season that ends early, or in early playoff rounds, than to get close like the Celtics did, only to watch it slip away...
I'm a Cubs and Lions fan who went to USC in the '90s and Michigan in the Rodriguez era. Politely, I shall say that the latter is better.
posted by Etrigan at 08:11 PM on June 11, 2012
Forgot a Cup win in there somewhere...
posted by MeatSaber at 08:39 PM on June 11, 2012
Because post game handshakes are silly. If you want to shake hands, great. If you just lost a chance at a championship and don't feel like congratulating the opponent you just spent the last seven games trying to destroy, I'm fine with it. We ask these guys to want this more than anything and then expect them to just drop all that heat in a second?
posted by tommybiden at 12:25 AM on June 12, 2012
but I guess it's the idea that it's almost better to just have a mediocre season that ends early, or in early playoff rounds, than to get close like the Celtics did, only to watch it slip away...
As a Man City fan once said:
"The despair? I can deal with despair. It's the hope I can't stand."
posted by owlhouse at 01:15 AM on June 12, 2012
Adult millionaires see the game as a paycheck and the path to glory.
posted by roberts
Obviously not. If a player sees the game as a paycheck, he's not going to give a damn whether he wins or loses.
I really don't care if they shake hands or not. Probably, because I'm a poor sport as well when it comes to competition. I don't think I've ever lost a game (tennis, basketball, baseball, racquet ball) where I didn't think I 'should' have won, where I wanted anything to do with congratulating or acknowledging my opponent.
I want players at the highest level to care about winning so much it kills them to lose. Otherwise, it is just a paycheck. And don't get me wrong, it IS poor sportsmanship. But it doesn't bother me at all. It's kind of like the Chris Rock line. I don't agree with it, but I understand it.
That's baseball.
posted by grum@work
After a hard fought playoff series (or game, for football), it's customary for the teams to mingle/shake hands/congratulate in any sport where there are multiple people on the field of play for both teams.
Football, hockey, soccer, basketball, lacrosse..
Only baseball doesn't do that.
That's not baseball. That's major league baseball. From tee-ball to high school ball, an after game hand shake has been the custom for as long as I can remember (no idea about college).
If that's changed, I think it's a mistake. Sports at those levels should be geared to learning more than athletic skills.
Not universally. To the competitive ones winning is everything, and yet they still demonstrate post-game sportsmanship. It's a bit sad to expect less of adults.
posted by rcade
They still demonstrate it because adults tell them to, because they're not allowed to skip out on getting in line and shaking hands. Because that's the custom. Because they're forced to. Do you really think kids naturally show good sportsmanship? Take away the adults and Lord of the Flies will quickly ensue.
posted by justgary at 12:06 PM on June 12, 2012
Do you really think kids naturally show good sportsmanship?
A lot of the kids are eager to be good sports. Your view that kids only exhibit the virtue of sportsmanship under compulsion is amazingly cynical. We didn't have to drag a single kid to the handshake line. My son enjoyed winning, but took losing in stride too. He was playing to have fun.
When I was a kid, I don't recall thinking it was a burden to exhibit sportsmanship after games.
Some studies show that young children will work together and share things equally, even when they could be greedy. Maybe we're not as naturally cutthroat a species as you think.
posted by rcade at 12:40 PM on June 12, 2012
My son enjoyed winning, but took losing in stride too. He was playing to have fun.
Born loser, obviously. Probably votes Democratic too.
posted by yerfatma at 01:21 PM on June 12, 2012
Do you really think kids naturally show good sportsmanship? Take away the adults and Lord of the Flies will quickly ensue.
I have a different experience with youth soccer. I can tell what a post-game handshake line is going to be like based on how the opposing coaching staff conducts themselves during the game.
The slimy, inappropriately behaved scumbag coaches consistently field teams that play dirty and afterwards trash talk and spit in their right hands during the walk-by high fives.
However, I have also seen individual opposing players exhibit decency and good sportsmanship on their own initiative while playing for coaches who were total assholes or lunatics. I have had opposing players apologize in the handshake line at the U-12 level.
When I think back to the stability and reasonableness of the unsupervised self-governed games we played as kids, competitive as hell though they were, sometimes I think that removing the friggin' adults from youth sports would be an upgrade.
posted by beaverboard at 02:09 PM on June 12, 2012
Your view that kids only exhibit the virtue of sportsmanship under compulsion is amazingly cynical.
I remember in little league that some kids would spit on their hands before walking through the line. Kids are assholes, man.
posted by tron7 at 02:11 PM on June 12, 2012
Your view that kids only exhibit the virtue of sportsmanship under compulsion is amazingly cynical.
That's not my view, that's been my experience. Not all children, but certainly the higher you go in athletics, because the higher you go, the more competitive the children are.
So sure, I don't think you'll find many tee ball players that are bad sports. Then again, you wouldn't find many tee ball players that would rather eat at McDonalds than play tee ball. Once you reach high school, at a competitive level, the more you would see of this behavior (not shaking hands) if it wasn't expected and tradition.
I just don't find the 'children do it, adults can too' a real strong argument. Then again, I'm not sure what a study of sharing among 3 year olds does either.
posted by justgary at 02:26 PM on June 12, 2012
Then again, I'm not sure what a study of sharing among 3 year olds does either.
You were talking about what kids do "naturally," so looking at what kids do at a young age is more likely to reflect that than what they do as high school athletes.
posted by rcade at 02:42 PM on June 12, 2012
You were talking about what kids do "naturally," so looking at what kids do at a young age is more likely to reflect that than what they do as high school athletes.
I think the children comparison is flawed because once you reach the professional level you have super competitive adults, who, in most cases needed to be super competitive as children to reach that level.
The higher you go in sports the more weeding out takes place. If you're not good at, and don't care much for, baseball at a lower level, you probably won't be still playing at a higher level.
If you could take those 3 year olds and separate the ones that were going to be so talented and competitive that they'd reach the highest level of sports, then maybe I'd put more stock into it.
Again, I didn't say it was admirable to be a poor sport, it just doesn't surprise me that athletes at that level can lose sight of what is right.
posted by justgary at 02:52 PM on June 12, 2012
Rondo and Garnett rush to the dressing room before the game is over, and miss the handshakes and hugs.
Any reason for that, other than being bad sports?