The picture above best explains what happened to all of us who pinned our hopes on the favorites. The past month saw favorites stumble at the last hurdles. Of course, there were exceptions but by and large, this was the month of the Underdog.
I will start of with the most recent event, the conclusion of the NBA Finals. The Boston Celtics, hardly given a chance by those who thought knew the game, and more importantly by those who others believed knew the game, were led by the "Truth" to put it across the LA Lakers. I have been harsh to the Lakers in the past and to Kobe in particular. But just for the moment, in my attempt to be objective, I will try and give him his due. The Lakers were deserving finalists, thrashing the defending champions and the other team, I believed to be one of the best in the west, the Jazz. They were led brilliantly by Kobe, whose post season until the Finals, made his MVP level regular season ordinary. Kobe was brilliant. He turned it on when he wanted to, and controlled games with ease and consistency, not seen from a shooting guard since His Airness. So they were deserving finalists, and with a bit of luck might have gone on to win the title, but surely, they will be a team to reckon with for the next 4-5 years at least. But yeah, Kobe still sucks. That brings us to the Celtics. Led by "The Big Three" of Truth, KG and Jesus, they found No.4 in Rondo. The Truth, deserved to be the Finals MVP. Putting aside the credibility of his knee injury, he still had a great series. And he deserved to be there, beating the King at his best. As for KG and Jesus, I am sure there is no one out there who wanted to see them retire without a ring. So it was a great finale to a great season. A season that unearthed a new superstar in CP3, and had four candidates for MVP, saw some high quality basketball, the grit of the underdogs from Atlanta, the re emergence of the Lakers and the Celtics, Superman's Magic, CP3 Vs D-Will, the made race in the west, the crazier free fall in the east, the Trailblazers, the dramatic crash of the Heat, rejuvenated Shaq, and of course, the King! The regular season was one of the best in recent times, and it sure culminated in one of the best finals in recent times. (The Detroit-Spurs was a bore)
Two great point guards to look forward to.
The French Open. Rafael Nadal. These two words describe the complete fortnight. An absolute demolition of the field not seen since Federer doing the same in the lawns of Wimbledon, a couple of years ago. And that is saying a lot. Especially when done by a player not called Roger. The finals thrashing of Roger was so shocking, that the Spaniard, actually apologized. Sure, for Roger, the grass is way greener the other side. But the re emergence of Nadal in the clay court season, has put back on track one of the greater tennis rivalries, and makes us anticipate another finals showdown between them on grass.
However, Nadal might end up being the greatest player never to be No.1. Novak Djokovic had a terrific French too and will surely overtake Nadal in the rankings, within the next year. But that is the beauty of this little idea we support. You never know!
Oh also, the women's circuit found a new world no.1, and lets just say, a lot of us are happy.
Formula 1. The last month sure made Kimi a strong believer in Karma. After crashing into Force India's Sutil in Monaco, while chasing for fourth, and thus denying the constructors and the driver their first points in F1, the world champion's race came to an end in the most comical fashion in Canada. Hamilton, who drove a brilliant race in Monaco, a little lucky maybe, finally showed that he is still a newcomer to this sport, when he failed to see the red light in the pits. Leaving, the Pole, Kubica to win the race, who by the way, was the car next to Kimi's in the pits, was left thanking his stars.
But Lewis, seriously, what were you thinking?? I have an exclusive interview with Lewis coming up soon, so will spare him of, what some might say, unfair treatment for now.
Golf!!!!! It actually made news!!!! And that says a lot. Tiger is a great player and all, yes, never denied it. But Golf? You can barely call it a sport. But the U S Open, was one of the best seen in a long long, really long time.
It had everything. An injury, A determined star, an unknown with a never say die spirit, coming from an injury himself, the oldest man, come backs, lost leads, do or die moments, everything. It had the perfect setting. And they delivered the perfect show. 'Rocky' and Tiger played the greatest playoff seen in a while and trashed all those who questioned the need of having an 18 hole playoff, and also those (me) who never regarded it a sport. They sure did give a show! And that is all that ever mattered. To a few at least!
The Champions League Final, was one of the best the game could have asked for, not for the quality of the game itself, but for the wide emotions expressed by the players within split seconds, the emotions covered the entire spectrum. And this image of John "six inches wide" Terry, (as a good friend of mine... Chari would say) will last for a very long time. But both Chelsea and Manchester United gave us a show, as sometimes, the lack of quality in a game can be made up by competitiveness. The Finals though was a reasonably high quality game. Manchester United were deserving winners. But the day will always be remembered for this.
The Euro-08 has been a great tournament so far, with teams that play aggressive football being rewarded, and of course the underdogs putting in a fight. It has been a great show thus far. And promises to be nothing less in the business end of the tournament.
Finally, Cricket. The inaugural Indian Premier League, witnessed one of the best finishes the organizers could have hoped for with a thrilling last ball finish made possible by a player who caught the nation's imagination during the course of the event. Yusuf Pathan. He made clubbing the ball fashionable again, more importantly graceful and effortless. The Indian Premier League, changed the face of Indian Television prime time radically but might have long term negative effects on the game itself. And no, it has nothing to do with the impact it will have on test cricket. I came across this theory in an article from Cricinfo.com and if you are interested, can go search for the same. But it went something like this. And it made a lot of sense.
It is almost certain that Albie Morkel and Mike Hussey will represent the Superkings instead of their teams back home for the Champions League. This is not only a huge blow to the chances of those teams in the Champions League, but might have greater impact on the game itself in the long run. The Chennai team is acquiring these two players by paying what they call "compensation" fees, which would be peanuts compared to the kind of money IPL is exposed to. In the case of the South African team, which funded and supported Albie, through his injury, this is particularly harsh. In the long run, business can bring all the good players to one place, and thereby dent the chances of victories of teams from other countries, which eventually will result in loss of the local peoples' interest in the team. Taking it to the absolute extreme, eventually this will kill cricket outside India, which can be the home to the best talent, and we can have 200 games a year and conclude it with the "World Series".
But otherwise, the IPL's first year gave a lot of great moments. Dravid's boundary in Mumbai greeted with silence, Yuvraj being booed, Sachin's wicket cheered, Symonds being applauded! IPL was the success it became, largely because the crowd was ready to accept the idea of city based franchises very quickly. Explains 60,000 seater being filled to watch home games of a team that never won at home. And to top it all, it had the underdog rising against all odds to win it all. Perfect script. And off the field, there was enough to have the people talk about it. Mallya, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity, Cheerleaders .. everything.. But whatever kept it going, the quality of cricket offered at IPL, if not extra ordinary, was definitely acceptable.
Besides IPL, there were the Windies frustrating again, Peiterson hitting left handed sixes, and India-Pakistan matches that hardly generated any interest. But the cricket was still high quality, with lots of close games, and the Aussie dominance of world cricket finally seemed to be coming to an end.
The last one month proved once again, why sports is the greatest idea ever created by man. It showed once again, that sports is not really about winning or losing for a fan, but it is to experience the two basest emotions of happiness and sadness, in its purest form, even if just momentarily. After all, for most of us, each match is just a tale, with characters whose victories inspire us, and their defeats comfort us. So here is to the greatest idea, we have ever supported. The truest reflection of the illusion we call life.
Viva la Vida!!!
(which by the way is a decent album)
