Oh snap

I bet a lot of people were expecting a litany of Dragon-Con-related posts, now that the convention is over, and I’ve got hundreds of pictures and many stories to tell.  But no, here comes the jock sports bullshit to interrupt all of my nerdy fandoms and shit.

But I have to say that I’m pleased with the way Virginia Tech opened the season with an actual win for a change.  Even if it took overtime and was a way harder game than it probably should have been, I was ecstatic to see Virginia Tech win especially over Georgia Tech.

So today, I go all cheap heel mode at the gym, and march around in a Virginia Tech shirt and remind all the GT students and alums in the place where my allegiances lie.  And I’m not going to lie, for this reason alone does it mean just a little bit more.

O PILSUNG KOREAAAAAAAA

South Korea mops floor with Japan, 2-0; wins Olympic Bronze medal in men’s soccer

Third place has never felt so awesome.  Seriously, sometimes fighting for the bronze medal seems more prestigious than getting a silver, because in most versus Olympic events, silver is the consolation prize for being the guy who lost to the gold medalist.  Bronze medal events are the ultimate tests for redemption; the losers get no medals, and only in the act of winning can you earn your spot on the Olympic podium and walk away with a medal at all.

The fact that the Koreans beat Japan for the bronze medal is just icing on the cake.  The cherry on top.  Gravy.

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Olympic ping-pong is funny

First off, I think the Olympics are as irrelevant as ever these days, and I can’t say that I’ve watched anything beyond the 25 minutes a day that I’m running on the hamster wheel.  But I have noticed that there is a whole lot of television coverage focused on a whole lot of volleyball, soccer and shit like rowing.  I guess the marquee stuff like basketball point shaving and women’s gymnastics is saved for times when people are actually capable of watching it.

But today, I caught a glimpse of Olympic ping-pong.  Doubles, no less.  With great amusement, I kept the television on the event, so I could see what ping-pong at the highest level looked like.  For about 35 seconds, the players on both side of the table would position themselves intricately, bob up and down and Hulk themselves up, preparing for the serve.  The serve would come, and the point would be decided in less than five seconds.  There would be fist pumps, roars of victory and high fives for every single point.  And then it would repeat itself, the preparation that takes longer than the payoff.

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The NBA Slam Dunk contest is stupid

For obvious reasons, one or two of the televisions in the locker room at my gym is always on the NBA Network.  This week, they’ve been systematically broadcasting apparently every single year of the NBA’s dunk contest.  Recently, I got to thinking about just how stupid the dunk contest really is.

As much as I understand the appeal and occasional functionality of dunking, I can’t help but thinking that a contest of dunking without defenders, a clock or any resistance is pretty much the dumbest thing in the world.  And it gets worse with every single year, with players looking to add gimmicks, costumes and props to their foolish exhibitions in order to impress designated judges who assign scores based on, lord knows what.

And with each passing year, much as there are more crowd shots of other players and devastated fans, out of their seats, OHHHHing and making guttural sounds of approval at what they witnessed, there have been more and more people in the locker room glued to the televisions, making much of the same reactions.  And for what?  Guys that are taking a basketball, and doing whatever they can possible in the fractions of a second before they attempt to force it into an uncontested hoop.

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Abby Wambach looks like the guy from Wanted

Everytime I see this commercial, I can’t help but think this.

I vaguely know the name Abby Wambach, because I look at enough sports websites on a regular basis for osmosis to eventually absorb, or maybe it was during the time when the whole world was fascinated with Hope Solo that some of her teammates names manage to float around or something, but I had no idea of what she actually looked like.  So I really had no idea that the “protagonist” of this Gatorade commercial was Abby Wambach until the descriptors in the YouTube video revealed such information.

But watching this commercial, I’m always thinking that Abby Wambach looks like the main character from Wanted.  That crappy movie which also had Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, where the concept of curving and hooking bullets came from, which I’ll occasionally rage-complain/reference while playing L4D, when I’m picked off around a corner, miraculously.  But I mean, come on – look at the picture; they totally look alike.  The swimmingly-green eyes, the Penguin-like hook nose, and even the furrowing of the brow, in intense agitation.

So now that the comparison is complete, it’s deduced that the guy from Wanted apparently plays professional women’s soccer when not making shitty movies.  Ironically what he does off-screen is reminiscent of the Rodney Dangerfield flick, Ladybugs, which focused around a dude playing soccer on a girls’ team.  And much like the character he played in Wanted was a gigantic pussy, the guy from Wanted waits until his defender is fatigued and feebly weak before exploiting it for the win.  Granted, I’m not above accepting wins no matter how they come, but ideally, nothing is more gratifying than beating an opponent when they’re at their best, not when they’re on their last legs.

But whatever – Wanted was a shitty movie anyway, and I stopped drinking Gatorade for the most part.  Too much fucking sodium.

The irony is that he’s not even retired yet

Nor has there been any mention yet of his retirement, or shown any legitimate signs that retirement is really imminent, either. Ironically, you’d think I write something about Chipper Jones, my favorite player on my favorite team, in my favorite sport, who actually has declared that 2012 is his last year and that he’s retiring when it’s over, over writing about Tim Duncan. The world works in strange ways sometimes.

But this Deadspin story about how Tim Duncan sat out of a game due to “being old,” makes me realize that the end has to be near for Tim Duncan, who is without question, one of the greatest basketball players in NBA history, and one of the few that I actually still like. Maybe one reason why I actually feel inspired and melancholy about the notion of Tim Duncan retiring is because unlike Chipper Jones, I’ve actually been witness to pretty much his entire career.

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A little bit of live brogging

I know the game is over.  Once Mason Plumlee makes the highlight reel with any sort of flashy dunk that happens for no other reason than the opposition being so flustered by defending the three, that they leave his lily-white ass open to do as many impressions of Dominique Wilkins as he wants.  Seriously, is there anyone in organized basketball that’s more goofy and oaf-like than Mason Plumlee?

As I type, Tech’s got 38 points, and I’m pretty sure that 36 of those points are either from three-pointers of free throws.  I’m not entirely sure why I’m still watching this game other than the fact that my other television is occupado with some Mass Effect action going on, but it is certainly brutal.

This game has been a big of a prick tease as they come; Duke’s missing most of their threes, but the problem is that Tech can’t make a bucket in the paint to save their life.  Tech is owning the boards and making their free throws, but someone forgot to let them know that they still need to occasionally make some actual field goals to put those requisite points on the scoreboard.  The game has been completely winnable for the Hokies, but so far they’re the only ones beating them, because it’s certainly not Duke.