Editor's Note: I wrote this while sitting on the couch watching the ABC Pregame and first quarter of the game.
Game 5 of the NBA Finals or a sushi dinner date with the love of your life?
I raced home from work tonight to catch the final glimpses of ABC's pregame show knowing that I might get a full quarter of live action before my girlfriend makes it home from her miserable commute, which has the tendency to morph her into a stiff cocktail made up of one part hungry, one and half parts cranky, with a splash of impatience. Not exactly the concoction you want coming home during the most entertaining NBA Finals in recent memory.
What do you do? Do you DVR the game, take her to dinner, tip the hostess to sit you away from the bar TV, get her a little tipsy, and attempt to avoid all contact from the outside world? OR, do you sit near the TV and get edamame thrown at you each time your eyes wander towards the screen. At least they aren't wandering towards the hostess, right?
By now, the game has started and her train is delayed. Sweet. More live action, but a shot of rum 151 just slipped in the cocktail to intensify the ingredients that are already simmering with feistiness. The odds of catching this game in its entirety are now less than LeBron James taking his talents back to Cleveland or Rep Weiner getting reelected.
NBA Finals…. sushi with the love of your life?
See, the NBA Finals represent a love of my life, sports. A sports fan needs to witness the greatness at its peak. The Finals! Chuck Klosterman has an excellent piece on the new Grantland.com that exquisitely covers the dynamic of sporting events in the technology era where it is virtually impossible to witness greatness on delay without somehow spoiling the greatness through all of the possible media outlets and methods of communicating with your friends. “If you successfully escape knowing the outcome, the game was merely good. Not great. Therefore, as you are watching, you already know you missed nothing. When you watch live, the possibility of greatness or even the unthinkable are always in play.” Sports might be the only thing left in life that presents that possibility.
Of course, the easy answer to this riddle is, why can’t you combine THE love of your life, with a love of your life? You can. And I do. She appreciates the sports fan in me. That doesn’t mean that some nights need a balance.
And on cue, as I am in the middle of this piece, my phone rings. My girlfriend (the love of my life, in case you were confused) is on the other end, and before I even have a chance to explain my predicament she says, “Hey, why don’t you order sushi in so we can both watch the game?"
A keeper, ladies and gentleman.
- Crafty Lefty
