Somehow it seemed amidst all the bizarre twists and turns that Covid-19 threw our way, an NBA season began, stopped, sputtered and eventually was bubbled and sequestered.
There was a normal season which came to within a handful of games toward completion before Covid-19 stopped the world in mid-March. The league devised an Isolation Bubble scenario at Disney World in Florida and 22 teams that finished within 6 games of a playoff spot were invited to participate in the quest for a Championship.
The players grumbled, but eventually agreed, providing they could dedicate their efforts to the ‘The Black Lives Matter’ movement sweeping the country. By the time a winner was crowned, we were well into August.
It was a great diversion. It got us to football which seemed to be on track to play a normal season. At times, caring about these multi-millionaire ball bouncing, bad team trouncing, giant dudes running up and down a wooden floor seemed silly and unimportant.
Crazy things were going on all around us. Crazy political things, crazy protest things, crazy things at work, crazy things in supermarkets, a crazy amount of people dying, losing jobs, facing eviction, going hungry. Just a crazy situation.
All topped off with the craziest election in the history of our country.
When I suddenly got reminded that a new NBA season was starting this past Wednesday last week, the notion went right by me, as I was fully engaged with final gift buying duties and the pandemic version of normal holiday hustle and bustle.
Finally, at some point on Christmas Day someone tuned into the Celtics/Brooklyn game mid 4th quarter and I got a glimpse of my favorite team being squashed by our new guy to hate, Kyrie Irving and his new BFF Kevin Durant doing ‘what they gonna do’ to teams this year. Up 20. Running away with it.
Before the TV was changed to ‘A Christmas Story,’ for the 100th year in a row, the announcers went over our Milwaukee victory in the first game. It feels like Hoops has snuck back into the picture too quickly.
So the first chance I get I’ll have to watch both games and see what, if anything (which is more like everything) I need to know. Then report back with my findings.
That is, if nothing else crazy happens!
