Well, the San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Finals (yawn) yet again.  Tony Parker was the most valuable player.  Regardless of his obvious skills, can’t we all agree that French people just shouldn’t be allowed to play in the NBA (much less be allowed to excel at it!)  I don’t have a good reason for making such a prejudice and ridiculous comment, but there’s just something wrong about it.  Basketball doesn’t fit with the stereotypes I have about the French.  (My friend Mike’s going to get on my case about this I know.)  Maybe it’s that I can’t reconcile the smack-tawkin’ sport of basketball with the high-brow pursuits of wine sniffing, art collecting, and cheese tasting.  I’ve just got all these stereotypes bouncing around in my head and the predominate one is that the French have an unabashed disdain for all things American (except Jerry Lewis).  I keep picturing Inspector Clouseau driving the lane and it just…well, it’s just sac religious or something. 

Why basketball, Frenchie?  Why didn’t you take up soccer like all your other friends, Tony Parker?  Why?  (Doesn’t this picture say it all, really?)

Anyway, I’m not even sure how French Tony Parker is or isn’t, but it’s embarrassing for me that he can come into my homeland and dominate the sport that "we Americans" invented and put on the map.  I know I sound like a real redneck saying that.  I should probably be spitting tobacco right now.  (Let’s not forget I was born in Kentucky.)  Parker’s got mad skills no question; it just makes me a little mad.  But there’s no point whining about globalization now is there; not much I can do about that.

On another note, the sports season is officially OVER for me.  It’s sad but true.  With the end of the NBA season all I can really expect as a spectator is a months and months of Chinese pseudo-sports.   Without basketball to fill the Void, the television only offers me endless hours of badminton, women’s volleyball, ping pong, snooker, occasionally bowling, and drag racing from Bahrain.   It’s brutal.  It’s cruel.  It’s an enigma. 

I opted out of fantasy baseball this year which has caused my interest in America’s pastime to wane a bit.  I still visit ESPN on a regular basis to see the box scores, but it’s just not the same as whiling a Sunday away watching the mesmerizing duel between pitcher and batter.  I guess I could turn on to soccer, but I have existential issues with a sport that is satisfied with a Tie.  I mean why keep score at all?  Might as well just play for fun.  If soccer players were competing to the death, well, that makes a Tie a much more interesting concept…  If only I were the Emperor of Sports and could pronounce such Edicts.

Looks like I’ll get some good reading done this summer.  And after all I think part of the reason my wife married me was because she was under the impression that I was one of the few MALES on this planet who was not OVERLY OBSESSED with sports.  Remains to be seen…remains to be seen.