Jim Walsh's Big Hairy Weblog Thingy

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Yada, yada, yada...

A big problem with sports on TV is the inability to leave well enough alone.

Last night the NBA Finals concluded with San Antonio coming out on top. Not the best series ever, but far from the worst.

Certainly there were some memorable moments...

Manu Ginobili's exuberance in the wake of a breakthrough performance...

Tim Duncan's gracious acceptance of the MVP and Brown trophies.

The post-game embrace between the coaches, Brown and Popovich.

These are the kinds of moments that need no embelleshments.

You think for one minute that stopped the talking heads? Au contraire, mon friere...

These guys (the announcers, I mean) are seasoned professionals. You'd think they'd know when to shut their highly-paid pieholes and let the moment speak for itself.

Nah...we got the philosophizing, we got the pointless questions, we got the "thanks for a great year" gladhanding among the hosts, we got the...the...

Well, mostly we got a lot of empty yap.

Then, most excruciating of all, the mandatory montage of slow-motion "highlight" shots from the series, accompanied by some cheesy "inspirational" music.

Is any of this really necessary?

One of my all-time favorite sports moments comes from the 1980 World Series, when Tug McGraw struck out Willie Wilson, winning the Series for my beloved, beleagured Phils.

Tugger held the ball, let it go and seemed to jump to the moon.

Nobody said a word. They didn't have to.

To paraphrase Billy Joel: leave the frickin' moment alone...