My First WNBA Game

I love basketball. I. Love. Basketball. All forms of it: Pro, College, Men's, Women's. I love it all. So what is a boy to do when it's summertime in the Windy City? Go catch a Chicago Sky WNBA game. However, due to being busy at some times and broke at others, I was never able to make the trek up to Rosemont (or to the UIC Pavilion when they played there).

Well, all of that changed yesterday.

Someone from my church happened to have a bunch of free Sky tickets left over for Friday night's game against Connecticut, so I figured I'd pick up two; one for my mother and one for myself.

Instead, the guy just gave me the remaining six he had.

So I start cold-calling friends to see if they are interested in coming to the game, but everyone I talked to was busy, and I didn't get any interested parties when I solicited the four free tickets on my personal Twitter.

Welp, looks like it's just a party of two.

So we head up to Rosemont, taking the Tri-State Tollway since going the Dan Ryan/Kennedy was a no-go (According to Google Maps, it would've taken two hours to get from my house to the Allstate Arena going that way). It only took a little under an hour going this way, only because there was some congestion around Roosevelt because of gapers looking at a car that rear-ended another in the right lane.

We get to the arena just in time for the opening tip. More specifically, they were just getting done honoring Sylvia Fowles and Swin Cash as they prepare to join the US Olympic Team. This is my first time actually being inside of Allstate Arena. I've only seen it through DePaul and Rush and Sky games I see on TV. On TV, it doesn't look all that impressive. But in person, the place looks kind of cool. I always get giddy when I go to major sports arena. Between the live atmosphere, the numerous banners in the rafters (Wolves, DePaul, and Rush banners. There were even banners up in the rafters for the 16 teams in the Big East), the low, wooden (?) ceiling, and the sheer size of this 17,500 building, I really found Allstate Arena to be a cool place.

So after the Olympic presentation, they meet at center court and tip-off

The Sky get off to a hot start, opening the game on a 13-2 run, including a 9-0 start. This can be credited to Ruth Riley essentially being all over the place as well as the hot shooting of Tamera Young.

However, as I almost expected, Connecticut found their way back into it, mostly on the back of Tina Charles. The Sky may have gotten off to a hot start, but I was seeing too many errant passes and a couple airballs to have me believe the lead would stick. So, after one quarter, the Sky were only up 15-13.

The second quarter was the quarter that made me hate Courtney Vandersloot. From my view in Section 105, I got a Russell Westbrook kind of vibe from her: looking to score first, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. It seemed to be a bad thing, because the offense looked stagnant, and she was just chucking up a shot whenever she thought she had it. However, when I checked my Center Court app to see how much harm she was inflicting on the team's offense, I saw that she was 5-9 at the moment, and looking at the play-by-play as I write this I see she was 4-8 in the second quarter, so she really wasn't all that bad.

Allstate Arena's neat center scoreboard. I wonder when they got this.

Plus, by the half, the Sky were still up, 35-26. As bad as she looked to me, Vandersloot had led the way for Chicago, and the Sun shooters were ice cold. Tina Charles had 13 for Connecticut, but everyone else was 5-26.

In the third quarter, Connecticut came out of the locker room, full steam ahead, as they pulled to within three with 5:46 left (41-38). However, the Sky finished the quarter on a 12-2 run to make it 53-40.

Then came the fourth quarter. Renee Montgomery got hot for Connecticut (10 points in the quarter), with help from Mistie Mims (9). With 1:56 left, the Sun managed to get within two; 66-64.

In the two-minute drill, the Sky couldn't take advantage of opportunities. After a Tamera Young miss with 1:35 left, Connecticut had the ball. Kara Lawson misses a jumper, and a scramble between Vandersloot and Danielle McCray leads to a jump ball. There was a size disadvantage (McCray had three inches on her), but the Sky still had a chance to corral the tip. However, all that was moot when Sonja Petrovic was called for a violation on the tip, and the Sun got the ball automatically. Ugh.

Okay, so all's not lost, the Sky just have to make a defensive stand, which they had done numerous times throughout the game. And they did, as they forced Montgomery to turn the ball over. There seemed to be hope that the Sky could hold off the big, bad Connecticut Sun. Until Mistie Mims stole the ball from Fowles with 45 seconds left.

So now, the Sun have another chance to tie or take the lead. But the Sky are playing tough D once again. So much so, that they are able to run the shot clock down to two seconds. Kara Lawson had the ball at this moment, and had no choice but to throw up a shot. Fortunately, the shot was off. Unfortunately, Vandersloot bailed her out with a foul. Grrrrr. Lawson makes both free throws, so with 24.5 seconds left the game is tied at 66.

Okay, I figure, the Sky can just hold the ball and get a shot off near the final buzzer. And that seems to be there plan. They get the clock all the way down to 2.9 when Vandersloot makes a bad pass that ends up in the hands of Allison Hightower. Doom looks certain, and Hightower charges downcourt for what seems to be the game-winning lay-up. However, there just enough time left that Allison couldn't make it all the way to the basket, and instead was forced to throw up a floater, which she misses.

So after the Sky found themselves up by as much as 13, and had lead the entire game, it was overtime in Rosemont.

An announced crowd of 5,988. Pretty good turnout IMO

Overtime was pretty close. Allison Hightower hit a lay-up to make it 79-78, Sun, with 8.9 left. Coming out of a timeout, Chicago had time to set up a play and take the lead back. However, Sonja Petrovic traveled, and Connecticut got the ball with 5.2 left. Kara Lawson hit 1 of her 2 free throws, making it 80-78. The Sky had one last chance to tie or win, by Shay Murphy missed a three at the buzzer.

Welp, the Sky lose.

Coming out of the game, I was sort of miffed at the loss, but all-in-all, I had fun. The crowd was loud, the music was loud (almost to a fault. One, sometimes the music was so loud that coming out of timeouts I couldn't here the whistle from on court and, two, the music just wouldn't stop. There were only select moments where they was sileence). It was a vibrant atmosphere, with is great for a league like the WNBA that is looking to attract more fans.

On the way I saw a poster congratulating Swin Cash and Sylvia Fowles on being on the Olympic Team and wishing them luck...

...and as I was heading to the car in the parking lot, I decided to take a picture of the illuminated arena logo sign...

...as soon as I took the picture, a low-flying plane swooped overhead as it was set to land at nearby O'Hare. Scared the dear life out of me. Whose bright idea was it to build a sports arena near an airport anyways?

But at the end of the day, I was glad I had a chance to take in a WNBA game. I hope to catch another one in the near future. Maybe after the Olympic break, maybe next year, who knows? I would also love to check out other area sports teams like the White Sox or Cubs. It may be summer, but there's still a lot of sports in my backyard.

The Miami Heat Won Because the Refs Cheated

On the night of June 21st, the Miami Heat were crowned the 2012 NBA World Champions after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder 4 games to 1. For the next day or so, talking heads will give out all sorts of reason and analysis as to why the series turned out the way it did. But when it comes down to it, none of that matters because we all know the real reason why the Heat came out on top.

It's because the referees and the league screwed over Oklahoma City and gave Miami all the breaks in a sort of Yellow Brick Road to their second championship in franchise history.

Of course.

No, it isn't because the Miami Heat just happened to be the superior team in this series. No, that would be absurd. It wasn't because of LeBron James leading what became his team by being consistently dominant throughout the playoffs. It's not because a man that plays like Magic but is built like Malone took charge and put up performances that associate him with the greats.

LeBron? The guy that is only the 8th player in NBA history (Like, the whole history. All 66 years of it.) to have 3 or more Regular Season MVPs and now a championship? LeBron? The guy that came through each time his team fell behind in a series? The one that racked up 40, 18, and 9 when they trailed the Pacers 1-2?  The one that put up 45, 15, and 5 when they trailed the Celtics 2-3 (a performance only bested by Wilt Chamberlain only 47 years ago)? The one that lead the charge when his team started the Finals 0-1, finishing the series with a triple-double in the clincher (a feat only done by Duncan, Bird, Worthy, and Magic twice)? Nah, it's not him.

It's not because the Heat made the necessary adjustments throughout the series, such as starting Bosh, or putting LeBron on Durant, or having Battier bother OKC's big man. Naw, it wasn't that. It wasn't because Oklahoma City didn't seem to make the right adjustments in the series. Not because they didn't utilize their interior presence of Perkins and Ibaka to impose their will, and ended up getting swallowed up by a small lineup. It's not because Durant found himself in foul trouble in multiple games during the playoffs.

It's not because Miami's role players came through in the series to aid a Big Three that was at the top of its game throughout. What would make you think contributions from guys like Chalmers (12 in Game 1, 25 in Game 4, 10 in Game 5) , Battier (17 each in Games 1 & 2, 11 in Game 5), and Mike Miller (23 in Game 5) would have any bearing on the outcome of the series? To think that Oklahoma City lacking a third scoring option in three of their four Finals losses (Harden struggling in Game 3 & 4, Westbrook in Game 5) would be one of the possible reasons for the series' outcome is so outrageous.

It's not because the Heat came into the series with memories of last year deep in there mind. Not because they took those mistakes from last year and applied them to how they carried themselves this time around. Naw.

Not because Oklahoma City, while being a young and athletic squad, faced this motivated buzzsaw and found themselves slightly in over their heads. It wasn't because this incredibly young team making their first appearance on this stage simply fell into a long line of young franchises that had their parades rained on due to a lack of a veteran or veterans that could contribute greatly to the cause. The Thunder had Derek Fisher off the bench and Kendrick Perkins starting while most teams in recent history that won in their first trip to the Finals had more dominant vets than that, like the '94 Rockets with Hakeem, the '99 Spurs with David Robinson, the 2000 Lakers with Shaq and Ron Harper, the 2004 Pistons with four of their five starters, the 2006 Heat with Shaq (again) and Alonzo and Antoine and Payton, and the 2008 Celtics with Pierce, Garnett, and Allen. But still, that can't be a reason behind their loss.

No, the Heat won the NBA Finals because the National Basketball Association and the referees they hired  played the part of puppeteers from headquarters in New York City and from their three positions on the court, respectively.

It's clearly because the referees were screwing over, not screwing up. What do you mean refereeing is a difficult job? What do you mean it's humans making subjective calls based off of what they see in the heat of the moment from a vantage point on the court that is not always ideal? Naw, screw that. Those refs are getting paid. They love LeBron and the Heatles so much that they decided to give them all the calls. All of them. All. Of. Them. Any mistake made by the ref was the result of compensation, not because they just did a bad job.

Everyone in the league office is getting paid. Duh. Clearly the league is rigging games in favor of one team for reasons that are unclear. They denied LeBron a championship on two occaisions, but this time they decided to give him one because ????. Can't you see? The league picks the winners every year. One owner is pre-determined to win it all, while the other 29 owners sit back, say nothing, and watch all the money that most of the teams aren't making roll in.

It's all a conspiracy, and it unfolded right before your eyes.

If it isn't clear by now, I make all of the above statements with the utmost sarcasm. Personally, I feel that things turned out the way it did because one great team beat out another great team in a short, but entertaining, series. There are numerous reasons at play as to why the series turned out the way it did, including many I didn't even mention. I strongly, strongly, believe that cheating is not one of them. Assuming this championship is tainted or that there is foulplay involved in the series' outcome is, in my opinion, disrespectful to the hard work that these teams and their players and staff put in on a daily basis. Trying to peg the outcome of these finals or any other games on refereeing or league involvement is akin to losing a video game that you aren't good at and saying the computer is cheating. It's trying to find a go-to reason for something that is complex and essentially random in nature.

My point is not to make LeBron critics like him or the Heat. It's okay to want them to lose. Even for me, as a Bulls fan, I'm hoping for their downfall every time Miami and Chicago face off. However, I reached my boiling point about all the LeBron hate because people were so busy talking out of the side of their neck just to disparage anything that he or his team had done. All I want is perspective. If one wants to criticize LeBron, or anyone else for that matter, at least have facts to back it up.

That's all.

Lastly, instead of trying to find conspiracies where there aren't, why not just enjoy the game for what it is? We are in the midst of a new era of exciting basketball. To think that what you see from the stands or on your TV screen is not organic is only doing a disservice to yourself.

Welcome Mat

Hello and welcome to the Coliseum Sports Network!

I'm Raymond Simms and I have been blogging about a myriad of sports topics on an on-and-off basis for the past four years. I have started blogs about broadcasters, sports fiction, and general sports talk. However, I found myself neglecting those blogs for various reasons (read: laziness). The Coliseum Sports Network is another foray for me into the sports blogosphere, but this time it comes with a deeper commitment to consistency and insight as well as an ambitious media outreach plan.

The reason I'm calling this the Coliseum Sports Network as opposed to just Coliseum Sports Blog is because this project will go beyond just this webpage. There are also accompanying Twitter, YouTube, and E-mail accounts. I will also be holding a periodic sports talk broadcast over on Blog Talk Radio. All of those links will are accessible through the Navbar.

In the coming weeks I will be experimenting with when and what I post here and what I present on my other accounts. Bear with me during this period and hopefully I will find a consistent posting pattern that is beneficial for everyone.

I appreciate everyone's support through my past ventures, and I appreciate your support as I work to develop the Coliseum Sports Network into one of the top forces in the sports blogosphere! I'm very excited and committed to make this a great site.

Thanks for reading, and most importantly, enjoy!