Olympic Love

On the eve of the 2nd week of the Winter Olympics I can hopefully say goodbye to all the figure skating and welcome in more curling, hockey, skiing, etc. Olympic hockey is just fantastic. Larger rinks, less stopages, and giant all-star teams assembled with national pride on the line. It's like if everyone played balls out in the all-star game, which nobody ever does. It's just wonderful and I highly recommend it. I was watching the replay of the USA vs. Russia game to just relive how great that game was and hanging on every shot of the shoot-out and how much fun it was. T.J. Oshie said something just wonderful after the game when he was called a hero, he simply said "The heroes in our country were camoflague and that's not me". All Oshie did was individually go 4-6 in the shootout and with the help of goalie Jonathon Quick carried the USA to victory over Russia in Group Play. It's true the game didn't have immediate ramifications, but it was still special. I was cheering out loud hungover at 9am in the morning, it was special. Oshie hit on two goals that if he would have missed would have lost the game, so it was just gut-wrenching. That's why the Olympics are so special, there are moments where EVERYTHING hangs in the balence for your country. It was further heightened by my personal favorite announcer Dr. Mike Emrick, AKA "Doc". He is truly a national treasure and the best announcer around. I can't wait for the medal rounds where everything is even further heightened. I've also renewed my love of curling and still yearn to learn more about strategy. I can't help but be confused by watching Great Britain and Norway battle not understanding why GBR wouldn't try to put one on the button as they say where they would throw up blocking stones and not go after the middle. There are things I still need to learn, but I THOROUGHLY enjoy curling. I've also been watching skeleton, luge, skiing/snowboarding and bobsledding. I feel awful for Bob Costas knowing how he completely dominates the Olympics every 2 years, but his horrific eye infections leave him too ugly for HD. I miss Costas doing the NBA Finals and the World Series. It saddens me we're missing out on him just because NBC doesn't pony up the cash for the big events anymore. It's criminal actually. It's the same reason we get Jim Nantz for the NCAA Tournament and not Costas, Vitale, or anyone else not affiliated to CBS. It's not fair that we don't get to enjoy the best and brightest because of contractual obligations. I'm one of the only people I know who thoroughly enjoys the NBA and the All-Star game festivities. The rivalry of the East vs. West seems more real and serious than in years past. LeBron vs. Durant being the Marquee, but the more deep West vs. the front heavy East is also interesting. Having LeBron and Paul George playing together should be VERY interesting too, so there's a few things to watch for during the game. Hopefully they don't mail it in and fuck around for the first 3 quarters and try to pull something together in the 4th resembling real basketball. The game is much better than it was 10 years ago, or whenever the watershed moment that made people stop watching and like NCAA much more than NBA ball. If you're one of these people the game is much better and worth watching again, especially the playoffs. That's when things go up to 11 and quality is all over the place.