Stop the Insanity!!!!

The overreaction of media in sports has me laughing today. It's not that we haven't seen it before, just that it keeps getting more and more hysterical as time goes on. The new trend with sports media is to react to absolutely everything, and do it in an over the top manner. Sunday is generally a slow sports day this time of year, unless there happens to be one of golf's majors or a huge NASCAR race on. This week we stumbled into a lucky Game 7...the pinnacle of the NBA game we are told. For 48 hours in advance, we were assaulted with the typical "Biggest Upset of All Time" rants from every NBA analyst that can still process oxygen. Remember, these are the same folks that have been shoving the great story that is Kevin Garnett and the resurrection of the Celtic franchise down our throats like it's the story of the decade. We've been force fed the idea that the Celtics and Pistons will meet in a classic conference finals, and there is nothing that can change it.

Turns out that Game 7 was a big letdown. I made sure to be home and avoid the golf course to watch the epic battle between Hawks and Celts. We all know now how poor of a decision that was....I'd have had more fun with a sunday "Honey Do" list to be honest. What is really cracking me up is the overreaction today over Boston taking seven games to get rid of the lowly Hawks. Scoop Jackson of espn.com fame writes that the mystique of the Celtics was ruined with this first round tussle......what? Are you serious Scoop? Are you telling me that if Boston runs through LeBron in 5 games, Detroit in 5 and then takes the Lakers out in the Finals we are all going to be less interested because it took them 7 games to get past the Hawks? REALLY? I'm pretty sure I've heard 37 analyst tell me that the Celtics are in trouble because they obviously can't win on the road in the playoffs. Jeez...are you guys serious? The Celtics have an amazing team, they looked unbeatable at home, and by the way....they had the NBA's best road record in the regular season. Today you'll hear everyone tell you how the Celtics are in trouble.....after they beat the Hawks in a win or go home game by nearly 40 and could have literally won by 60 had they wanted to. Why is everyone so quick to flip on Boston? Weren't the same mediots telling us how great they were just a week ago? Remember how great Boston looked after going up 2-0 with big home wins that weren't even close, and the Pistons (now everybody's favorite because they played 3 good games) were getting blasted by the starless 76'ers. At that point Boston was a shoe-in for the Finals, and Detroit was being touted as this years first round bust. Why do we have to go to such extremes?

Maybe it's the 24 hour news cycle....maybe its the big money that is involved in sports news today....maybe its the "instant gratification" aspect to our society.....maybe it's ESPN's fault for giving us a 24 hour sports station. It's probably a mix of all these things and others. It's only going to get worse as sports and the money made by talking about sports gets larger and larger. At some point we are going to be having daily conversations about whether or not a coach should lose his job based on how his team practiced that morning. "Around the Horn" and "PTI" will be discussing if Lebron is washed up 5 minutes after he's walked out of a Cavaliers early afternoon walkthru because he missed a dunk before leaving the gym. It really is getting out of hand.