Sports Fan

Los Angeles is crazy for the Lakers, and it's only going to get crazier now that they've won the NBA title for a second straight year.

Today, I was eating lunch in the cafe on the ground floor of the office building where my new job is based. It was my second day at work so I had been in there a couple of times and most of the conversations I overheard were about the Lakers. Finally, one of the customers asked the counterman where he was watching the game tonight. His wife responded for him. "He doesn't watch important games like this one. He's afraid the Lakers are going to lose. He records the game, waits till it's over, then checks the news to see if the Lakers won. If they did, then he watches the recording of the game." The counterman sheepishly agreed that that was what he does.

It's none of my business, but isn't the reason you watch a ball game precisely because you don't know who's going to win? Where's the fun and the suspense in rooting for your team if you already know what has happened? There are lots of good uses for the technology of recording TV programs, but this is about the saddest one I've heard. Oh, maybe I'm being too hard on the poor guy. I hope he enjoyed the game. Two and a half hours later than everyone else did.