Life's Too Sports

For the Golden State Warriors, the 2010s were nothing short of remarkable. Having spent four decades mired in mediocrity, the Bay Area's team finally managed to assemble a dominant lineup en route to securing three championships, qualifying for the NBA Finals in five consecutive seasons from 2015 to 2019. While the basketball world largely fixated on the Warriors' iconic 73-9 record during the 2015-2016 season (as well as their subsequent NBA Finals' collapse and recruitment of phenom Kevin Durant), the history books will illuminate an unforgettable period of time in which rising superstars joined forces to immortalize their respective legacies. Unfortunately for Golden State, impermanence remains the harsh reality of professional sports, and the Warriors' reign of terror came to a screeching halt in the summer of 2019. In Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, two-time defending NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon (ending not only his season, but hi...

On Friday, the NBA announced that Bucks' superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo had received his second consecutive MVP award. After the Lakers defeated the Nuggets 126-114 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, fellow NBA superstar LeBron James was approached for comment.  He didn't hold back. "It pissed me off. That's my true answer," James said. “It pissed me off because out of 101 votes, I got 16 first-place votes. That’s what pissed me off more than anything. Not saying the winner wasn’t deserving of the MVP, but that pissed me off.” If I had to guess, I'd say he's pissed off. However, James wasn't alone in his criticism of the announcement. USA Today's Mark Medina wrote an opinion article illustrating some reasons he believes James deserved the award over Antetokounmpo. Medina argues that James 1) led the league in assists, 2) performed better than Antetokounmpo in head-to-head matchups, and 3) navigated a young Lakers team through th...

As NBA star LeBron James stands merely four victories away from his 10th NBA Finals appearance, comparisons to all-time great Michael Jordan continue to circulate. Personally, I do not believe that LeBron James is the GOAT . However, I decided to test this debate in a best-of-7 series on NBA2K20. My simulated match-up features 1995-1996 Michael Jordan and 2015-2016 LeBron James, as both players are ranked 99 overall in the game system. Jordan entered this season at 32 years of age, 11 years after making his NBA debut. Meanwhile, James entered this season at 30 years of age, 12 years after making his NBA debut. Here's the breakdown. Game 1: MJ 21, LeBron 19 Jordan's line: 16 MIN, 21-46 FG, 26 REB, 1 STL, 3 BLK, 5 TO, 7 OR, 11 DNK, 0 FLS James' line: 16 MIN, 19-43 FG, 21 REB, 5 STL, 5 BLK, 2 TO, 4 OR, 7 DNK, 1 FLS Game 2: LeBron 21, MJ 16 James' line: 14 MIN, 21-37 FG, 22 REB, 0 STL, 4 BLK, 1 TO, 5 OR, 6 DNK, 1 FLS Jordan's line: 14 MIN, 16-38 FG, 14 REB...

With the NBA and NHL deep into their respective playoff brackets, MLB approaching its modified postseason format, and the first NFL Sunday on tap for tomorrow, I thought it might be interesting to illustrate some of the more meaningful moments in my time as a sports fan. Recognizing that everyone invests in a unique combination of teams, I'm interested to know how my "Top 10 Sports Moments" stack up with those of my readers.  Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below and don't forget to "Subscribe" for future post notifications :) 10. The 2018 World Series: Red Sox beat Dodgers in 5 games As an avid San Francisco Giants fan, something about the Dodgers losing in the World Series is simply irresistible. There's nothing sweeter than watching your rivals spend absurd amounts of money each offseason, stack their roster to clinch the NL West, and ultimately crumble when it matters most. While this one wasn't quite as memorable as the Dodgers...

Few players in the history of organized sports have garnered more attention than Los Angeles Lakers' star LeBron James, currently playing in his 17th NBA season. In a 2018 episode of "More Than An Athlete", James claimed that his 2016 NBA Finals victory against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors made him the greatest basketball player ever. However, assessing his legacy solely through the lens of a 3-1 series comeback against one of the most impressive teams in NBA history does not paint the picture in its entirety. Despite proclaiming himself as NBA royalty, since being drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003, James has relocated on three separate occasions to form "superteams" in cities across the United States. After seven difficult seasons in Cleveland (including a 2007 NBA Finals appearance in which his Cavaliers were swept), James made the infamous "Decision" to join the Miami Heat in 2010. Re-signing perennial All-Star Dwyane Wade, the Heat ...

The Miami Heat rode Jimmy Butler's playoff career-high 40 points to victory on Monday evening, overcoming the one-seeded Milwaukee Bucks by the score of 115-104. Both Miami and Milwaukee entered the night riding four-game winning streaks to advance in the postseason, with the Heat sweeping Indiana and the Bucks quickly recovering from an unforeseen Game 1 loss to dispose of Orlando. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, adversity struck once again this afternoon, with point guard Eric Bledsoe appearing on their injury report as a last-minute scratch due to a right hamstring strain. Nonetheless, FanDuel placed their odds of winning at 65%, giving the Bucks a five-point edge. And in the early minutes, they did not disappoint. By the conclusion of the first quarter, the Bucks had built a 40-29 lead, converting 15-of-24 attempts from the field (62.5%), and benefiting from a buzzer-beating 3-point shot by Brook Lopez. However, despite any potential rust on display from Miami (who had not ta...

As of July 13, 2017, the Golden State Warriors’ starting Point Guard, Stephen Curry, is widely-renowned as quite possibly the greatest shooter that the NBA has ever seen. However, perhaps even more impressive than Curry’s wide range of accomplishments is the plethora of hardships that he has had to overcome in order to become the star player that he is today. Wardell Stephen Curry Junior was born in Akron, Ohio – ironically, in the same hospital as fellow NBA star, LeBron James. Steph’s father, Dell Curry, was a great NBA talent in his own right, playing for the Utah Jazz, Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, and (at the time) Cleveland Cavaliers. Simply put, growing up in the shadow of his father’s career could not have been easy for Steph. Upon his high school graduation from Charlotte Christian School in North Carolina, the college outlook was looking rather bleak for young Mr. Curry. At 6’2, 163-pounds, many recruiters were certain that Steph simply did not ...

With the team set to embark on a road-trip of three games in four days, and All-Star Power Forward Draymond Green taking a brief leave of absence due to the birth of his child, the Golden State Warriors (25-4) entered the Barclays Center on Thursday evening with every excuse to "play down" to their sub-par opponent, the Brooklyn Nets (7-20). And unfortunately, in the first half of action, Golden State did just that. Prior to the contest (on "Warriors Pregame Live"), analyst Garry St. Jean had proclaimed that the team must have "defensive focus" in the absence of Draymond Green, and Warriors' Insider Monte Poole urged the team to "get a lead and keep it going". Unfortunately, neither of these "Keys to the Game" came to fruition for Golden State in the early-going.  Midway through the first quarter, the Nets had already built a 20-12 advantage on a performance of 8-of-14 shooting from the field. Meanwhile, Warriors' Shooti...

Following their 45-point demolition of the Portland Trailblazers on Saturday, the Golden State Warriors (24-4) entered Oracle Arena on Tuesday evening looking to record their fifth consecutive victory, and seventh consecutive against this particular opponent. Tonight's opponent: the red-hot Utah Jazz (18-10). Much like the Warriors, the Jazz entered the contest having won four straight ballgames, and eleven of their previous thirteen. The difference between the teams: Golden State entered the night with the highest-ranked offense in the NBA (117.9 points per game), whereas Utah took the court featuring the 24th most prominent offense in the league (100.2 points per game). Seemingly, if Golden State could manage to exceed their PPG average, a record of 25-4 would be theirs for the taking. However, the opening stages of this game would firmly demonstrate just how difficult of a task this could be. In the first quarter, Golden State struggled mightily to adapt to Utah's "...

After being massacred at Quicken Loans Arena in Game Three of the NBA Finals on Wednesday evening, the Golden State Warriors strolled into enemy territory once more on Friday, seeking a confidence-renewing victory. With a win tonight, the Western Conference Champion Warriors could propel themselves to a nearly insurmountable 3-1 series advantage, while pushing the Eastern Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers to the brink of elimination. As the game progressed, however, it became clear that Cleveland's aforementioned victory had done wonders for their confidence, whilst Golden State was poised to rebound and shut the door on a rather animated Cavalier rally. Game Four would quickly become the most tightly-contested game of the 2016 NBA Finals thus far. With tempers aflame and the stakes ever-increasing, both the Warriors and Cavaliers would come out firing, in relentless pursuit of a momentum-shifting victory. At the conclusion of the first quarter, Golden State would hold ...