Nights like Wednesday night make it really easy for hockey fans nation wide to hate the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, and more specifically, Sportscenter. Better yet, make it this entire week. We’ll stat with Wednesday night.
On a night where LeBron James registered a triple double against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, and three nights after Kobe Bryant dropped 61 on those same Knicks at the same place, Sportscenter dedicated the lead story to both men, then showed game clips, then interviews, then had in “experts” to discuss the feat. First off, it’s the Knicks. I bet the University at Buffalo men’s basketball team could beat them at the Garden. Regardless of what Mike D’Antoni has done for the franchise, its still a laughing stock. Yes, the Cavs avoided allowing the Knicks to spoil the night, but was it really worthy of being #1 in the top 10?
LeBron’s feat was no question better than Kobe’s 61 on Monday. James’ effort helped push Cleveland over a very close game against the Knicks. Kobe’s was just enjoyment for the fans as their team fell by 9, but the game was never really in question. LeBron is a special kid, and yes, sometimes I’ll even say wow watching his highlights, but there is just so many times you can see a guy drive uncontested to the net, do some showboating slam dunk and for some reason get nominated for a top play.
Dunks are awesome, you say? Go ask University at Buffalo guard Andy Robinson how awesome his dunk against Central Michigan was in the closing seconds of their contest Tuesday night. It was so awesome that the ball rattled around the rim and came out, allowing the Chippewas a chance to not only tie the 1 point lead the Bulls had, but embarrass them in their own Arena. While the comeback for the Chipps failed, and A-Rob had no explaination after the game other than "I went up and it was here, the it wasn't," it nearly cost the Bulls a valuable Mid-American Conference game.
On LeBron’s “magical” night (heck, the way Sportscenter was covering it, you’d think it was Access Hollywood getting their hands on scenes from the next Harry Potter movie, or the paparazzi getting once in a lifetime shots of some celebrity), ESPN neglected to even MENTION Thomas Vanek’s even more rare feat prior to the Top Ten plays segment.
Vanek netted a natural hat trick, the first of his career but 5th hat trick overall for him. While the 3rd goal was a simple tip in, the first two were truly amazing. The first was a battling effort in front of the net on the power play, the 2nd was an absolute laser of a slap shot. Even before Vanek got his first goal, Drew Stafford made one of the best plays in hockey I have seen this season. Taking the puck from his back hand behind him, through the legs, around a defender and then going top shelf, glove side behind the Leafs keeper.
There was no reason that that play couldn’t have its own spot in the Top Ten, but since ESPN doesn’t have any rights to the NHL, why bother covering it, right? Nope, let’s blow the Michael Phelps bong hit out of proportion or send Pedro Gomez to the place he knows best, covering Barry Bonds and giving us nothing that we haven’t suspected. We get it, he did steroids, we know, it is not that difficult to see nor figure out. It didn’t take a court order to tell us “the steroid syringes contain Barry’s blood” or “his urine tested positive for steroids. But did we mention some samples were from 2000?” Like the MLB didn’t know? Please, they kept it hush hush because interest in the sport was coming back thanks to the home run hitters like Bonds or McGwire putting baseballs 500 feet out of the park. But that’s a rant for a whole another post.
But thank you, ESPN, for proving to the world you care so very little about hockey, and continue to feed that bias. I would rather sit and watch an entire game of Mites on Ice than one NBA game for the simple fact that at least the little kids try and play for the love of the sport. Not for $25 million a season to play half assed, or be a ball hog, or dunk over a guy 18 inches shorter than him. Give me hockey, where even the smallest guy will stand up to the biggest, regardless of how bad it will make him look later on that night.
So props to you Thomas Vanek and Drew Stafford, and heck even you Gionta for standing up to Chara, and Chara for not stepping on nor killing Gionta, these clips are for you:
Vanek's Trick & Stafford's Goal:
Mis-match: Gionta vs. Chara
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