Thumbs Up
I’d qualify this whole argument by first saying that a non-Olympic, non-men’s World Cup summer of sports can only be so interesting. Other than the occasional dramatic conclusions to the NBA and NHL playoffs, a summer like this basically consists of midseason baseball highlights, offseason NFL news, and a potpourri of Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens-type stories.
Looked at through this context, this summer wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
The conclusion to the NBA Finals was a very exciting moment for the biggest bandwagon fan base of 2011: anti-Miami Heat fans.
Never mind that one of the most underrated athletes of our generation rallied his team out of obscurity to win a championship. Some people were just satisfied by the failure of LeBron James and his teammates while others took a more positive approach and enjoyed the deserving success of Dirk Nowitzki. (If it seems like that last sentence reeked of judgment, it’s because it did.)
Either way, the 2011 NBA Finals proved to be one of the most compelling in recent memory.
Summer sports would seem empty without some sort of athletic showcase pitting country against country. Usually it’s the Olympics or the men’s World Cup but this summer, the women’s event measured up pretty well, given the American team’s gripping title run.
Over the course of the tournament, plenty of non-soccer fans were caught up in the excitement of watching this squad and were introduced to players like Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, and Cal’s own Alex Morgan — all of whom became household names this summer. You can’t ask for much more from a sporting event like that.
And then we had all this lockout business.
Now that the NFL lockout is officially over, the whole ordeal almost seems like a blessing in disguise. For hardcore football fans, the NFL offseason is about as slow of a news cycle as you could possibly imagine. The whole drama with the lockout caught America’s attention just enough so that it always felt like something was happening — even when nothing was.
Suddenly, the lockout is over and preseason is in full swing. It might just be me, but this year’s offseason felt like the shortest one I’ve ever experienced.
Maybe it’s a stretch, but I’d call that a positive for this summer in sports.
— Eric Lee
Thumbs Down
This sports summer started promisingly enough.The NBA Finals weren’t exactly what I was hoping for (yep, I’m a Lakers fan), but by the time Dirk Nowitzki nailed that winning layup in game two I was shamelessly hopping on the Dallas bandwagon; I’m just such a sucker for an underdog story.
After Nowitzki lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy in the air, I watched the Boston Bruins do the same with the Stanley Cup. Yet again, after watching my team (the Sharks, who else?) suffer an early exit, I placed my bets on a squad that went on to take it all a few weeks later.
And then … nothing. All. Summer. Long.
Blame it on the lockouts. Lockouts, as in plural. What did American pro sports fans do to deserve such a fatal one-two punch?
In the world of football, I was anxiously awaiting the rumors of who my beloved Packers would consider signing. I wanted to know how Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews were preparing to repeat their colossal success. I was dying for some preseason speculation, and then the NFL broke my heart.
There were 18 weeks of filler news and half-hopeful attempts from “insiders” to convince the general public that the players and the league were closer than ever to reaching an agreement. It became a running joke on SportsCenter that if the day was slow, viewers could “thank the lockout.” I didn’t even want to hear about the particulars of the negotiations; just give me my sport back, I prayed.
When the lockout finally ended, training camp was no longer a happy culmination of summer musings, in my eyes; it became a mad scramble to turn back the clock and make up for foolishly lost time.
Then, as if we didn’t suffer enough, the NBA had to go and pull the same stunt. For the first time since 1994, two major leagues shut down. While the NFL lockout mercifully ended after an 11th-hour Hail Mary deal, the NBA will likely suffer through a much longer labor dispute.
At least I had baseball to console my wounded heart. Oh wait, I’m a Dodgers fan. The single greatest moment of this summer was probably when they swept the Padres in July and moved up in the standings … to second-to-last place.
I live for summer. I live for sports. Nothing is better than when the two combine, as they did last summer during the epic high that was the FIFA World Cup. But this time around, the two just couldn’t get it right.
— Annie Gerlach
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